United States Senate candidate Mike Rogers answered questions this week about a $500 million federal grant for the GM Lansing Grand River plant to transition it to an EV factory, according to The Detroit News. Currently, the Michigan plant builds the Cadillac CT4 and Cadillac CT5 sedans, which are based on the Alpha platform. Before it was discontinued, it produced the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro.
“No, I don’t think so,” Rogers replied when asked whether he’d support federal funding going toward an EV conversion of the Lansing plant. “The only reason they’re doing that plant and the $500 million is because they’ve mandated they’ve had to hit certain standards, EPA standards,” Rogers added. “We can get to a better emission standard, but you can’t do it … the way that they’re mandating and spending our taxpayer money on trying to drive this down people’s throats. I just don’t think it will work. I think it’s a bad investment. We ought to step back and let the market fix this.”
Mike Rogers – Credit: Michael Buck, Wood TV8
Although Rogers opposes the federal investment in the GM Lansing plant, his rhetoric is not against alternative fuel vehicles per se. He mentioned hybrids as a popular alternative to EVs. “Markets work. Mandates don’t,” said Rogers. “We ought to unwind ourselves from this, allow them to build hybrid cars.”
If Rogers is elected, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to stop the grant from going through. The Biden Administration announced in July that the Department of Energy will provide $1.7 billion in grants to automakers and suppliers to support the transition to all-electric vehicles. A big chunk of that $1.7 billion investment was a $500 million grant for the GM Lansing Grand River factory. As production of the aging Alpha platform dials back, as we’ve seen with the discontinuation of the Camaro, the GM Lansing Grand River plant is expected to produce GM BEV Prime vehicles, including the Chevy Corvette EV and various all-electric Cadillac sedans.
Rogers’s political resume includes serving as the Representative for Michigan’s 8th district in the U.S. House from 2001-2015. Before that, he represented the Great Lake State’s 26th district in the Michigan State Senate from 1995-2001. Rogers will be on the ballot running against incumbent Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin on November 5th.
Comments
Rogers is right.
I 100% agree. Why is the government forcing a product on the people that they obviously don’t want. It’s just more inflation added to an already bad economy
I’m with you Dennis. EV’s are costing the big three mega bucks because they’re not selling. I’ll walk before I buy one!
Evs accounted for 10% of auto sales in the last quarter. Not sure where you are getting your sales info but is wrong.
The government is not forcing you to buy anything!!!
They are forcing manufactures to produce more efficient, cleaner running vehicles. Why is that a problem? You like pollution? You like the more powerful weather patterns that are destructive and causing your insurance rates to skyrocket? Prefer to go back to the 70s before controls were implemented and the pollution in the sky’s was horrific and you could see a few miles away?
Maybe you should stop being so selfish and figure out what you can do to reduce the pollution you spill instead of inappropriately complaining the government is for ing you to make a new vehicle purchase.
Bye-bye Mr. Rodgers!
If EV’s are so great then they should stand on their own merits and not require the government to sell them.
They do, it just takes lots of capital to get the production running and to make them affordable to the masses that want to buy them.
Yes, and don’t forget, nobody is forcing you to buy one. There are plenty of options that meet those mandates fueled by the tons of oil subsidies that equal the tons of carbon and pollution those options will continue to spew for decades so you can have your choice of ruining the planet for everyone else.
Hello Bob. Do you heat your home? Do you cool your home? Do you use anything with plastic? All these things use energy so you are ruining the planet also. And where do you think the energy comes from to charge your electric car. Think about it Bob. Get off your high horse.
Yep, all that wind and hydro is horrible for the environment. It’s about doing what you can, when you can, not about solving every problem all at once. EV’s are only a small part of the solution.
You’re another Parrot yapping about “Oil subsidies” without a clue about knowing where those subsidies are spent and how they are re-paid THOUSANDS of times over during the production life of the Well those subsidies encourage risky and expensive for finding.
Bye bye ct4, ct5, blackwing, and any other ice cars. Bye bye auto workers as we have known you, some not all, great decision build what customers don’t want, most not every customer. Yup government at its finest.
Bring back the Camaro V8 . There are enough EV vehicles just setting around and not being sold. This is ruining the car industry because the prices are high and most people don’t want them or can’t afford them. The Biden administration has tried to push them on people and the average person doesn’t want them. Do not waste taxpayers money on giving automakers money to change their plants. That is their responsibility not the taxpayers.
Nice photograph of the gm Lansing Grand River plant. Just so everybody knows, the smokestacks are NOT part of the gm plant. They belong to the Lansing Board of Power and Light coal fired powerplant located just south of the gm property. The coal fired plant has been de-commissioned.
Say what “incumbent Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin on November 5th.” She is NOT an incumbent SENATOR she is currently a House Representative!
Glad somebody is fact checking the media. They’re not so good at it.
Hmmm…I don’t recall VOTING to “hand out” a $500,000,000.00 “Grant” ( non repayable) to GM to build or convert an assembly Plant to produce EV’s ! Vote accordingly !
That would be because you have no vote. The people we elect to represent us do the voting. Civics 101 seventh grade.
Let the auto manufacturers foot the bill. Retirees get will get a measily 2.5% COLA Social Security boost next year while GREEDY UAW and dockworkers strike and insist on upwards of 77%. Stop wasting our tax dollars and God willing, and end soon to Biden/Harris Economics !!!
And average EV battery weighs about 1000 lbs. 200 lbs. of copper, 400 lbs. of aluminum and steel, and then you add in the dangerous lithium, etc. You need to excavate 500,000 lbs. of earth and use 25,000 gallons of H2O to build just ONE EV battery. Tell me again about how green EV’s are.
Let’s pretend the device you use to your your message doesn’t use the same materials. Billions of phones and millions of laptops are sold yearly. Tesla EVs started with laptop batteries
Winter is coming, go back to Florida. We will send another Hurricane very soon.
Stop the incentives for hybrids and se how fast sales drop. Take the incentive and keep the tank full. Such a joke.