Representative Debbie Dingell is among the prominent voices in Congress advocating for a smooth transition to electric vehicles. Dingell, who was first elected in 2015, represents suburban Detroit, home to a large swath of the American car industry and the labor force that builds those vehicles. I spoke with Dingell, a former GM executive who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, about the pressing issues facing legislators as the country races to make EVs dominant.
China is allowed to test their autonomous vehicles on our roads. We are not allowed to go into China and test our vehicles. China’s collecting data right now from those autonomous vehicles about all kinds of things. Can you help play out the scenario? What if China leads on EV deployment? We’re going to be exporting our jobs to China. Then they’re going to come back into this country. They’ll sell them at a low price, which is what they do.