MADISON – Representative Ellen Schutt (R –Clinton) released the weekly radio address on behalf of Wisconsin Legislative Republicans.
Assembly Bills 141 and 142 prohibit the state and local governments from banning the use or sale of a motor vehicle or any other device based on its power source. To be clear, these bills would prohibit bans on both gas-powered AND electric vehicles and other powered devices.
Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland. Wisconsin is home to over 64,000 farms that produce not only milk and cheese but countless other commodities. Without the gas-powered equipment required to produce over $11 billion worth of commodities our state produces, the rate of production would be substantially affected and the cost for consumers would skyrocket.
The use of gas-powered machines to plant and harvest crops to feed animals and people would definitely be affected. As reckless as it does sound for local government or a state agency to ban a vehicle based on its energy source or a product, other states across the country and cities have done this, phasing out the use of gas-powered as early as 2035.
These bans infringe not only on individual freedom, but on your choice to decide what kind of vehicle or product you want to buy. It also does this on distributors selling products to the consumer and on our manufacturers across the state who produce vehicles and these other products.
The responsibility should be on people, if they believe so, to educate and convince others to switch from their gas-powered machines to electric. The government should not be forcing individuals to buy certain products, eliminating competition, and destroying the free market.
These bills simply protect consumer choice and those businesses across our wonderful state that manufacture and sell gas-powered vehicles and devices. The government at any level should not dictate what kind of vehicle or product we buy based on the energy source. These bills make sure that can’t happen.
