Buttigieg on GOP Opposing EV Push: ‘I Feel Like It Is 2005 and I Am Meeting People from the Rotary Phone Society’

EXCERPT:

BUTTIGIEG: “I’m sorry, but the idea that America will compete and win in the 21st century by clinging to 20th century technology, that is a recipe for those jobs to disappear. And I know exactly what that can do because I grew up in the industrial Midwest surrounded by the literal carcasses of the factories, of companies that couldn’t innovate fast enough. Sometimes when I’m hearing this dialogue and this debate, last week when I was testifying in Congress, hearing a lot about EVs I feel like it's 2005 and I am meeting people from the rotary phone society. This new technology is here. The only question is whether it will be built in America and whether it will be built largely by union workers or whether it will be built by China. Clinging to the old technology is not a recipe for success. And importantly, the UAW agrees. They aren’t saying we have to somehow trap people in using the old technology and the old kind of cars forever until the last dog dies. What they are saying is this is the dawn of a new chapter in the auto industry. These electric vehicles are the future and they want to make sure they get good union benefits making them."