Right now, let's say good morning too. The senior VP for Public and Government Affairs at the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association, it's Karen Bailey Chapman.
Good morning, Karen, Good morning, and happy Monday, if you can.
Call it a happy Monday. I agree. Yeah, okay, So Karen, before we dive in, because we're going to be talking about evs and EV mandates, I really quickly just to familiarize people with what your group does. What does your group do?
So we are the Specialty Equipment Market Association, probably best known for the SEMA Show, which is the largest automotive gathering that takes place in Las Vegas every November. What we do is we represent the manufacturers, retailers, and distributors
of after market specialty aftermarket automotive parts. So everything you do to your vehicle after you've bought it, because you want to make it faster, improve the engine performance, or make it cooler looking, list it, lower it, all of the fun stuff people love to do to customize their vehicle. Those are the parts that we make. We represent fifty two billion dollars in retail sales annually, as well as employee one point three million Americans.
Okay, so now that helps us a lot as we jump into this. So your group is for moving to a cleaner car industry, but your group is not for EV mandates. And which are there are several that are you know they're looming and why why are you against the EV mandates?
We believe that government should remain technology neutral when it comes to our vehicles, not only because we believe that innovation, as it's already been proven, can continue to improve emissions out of our vehicles just based on the technology and innovation that we have, but also to protect consumers so that they have the ability to purchase and have available to purchase the vehicles that best suit their needs, whether you live in the rural community or you live in
an urban or suburban areas. So all consumers have different needs, and we have the ability to do things with our vehicles and innovate to cleaner emissions, but government, we believe, should stay stay out of telling us what to do and allow the marketplace and the innovators to accomplish accomplish the goals.
Okay, so you're basically saying that the private sector is going to get there, but you've got to give You've got to let them do it on their own timetable and not force it by saying you must do like California has done saying new cars have to be electric or hybrid by twenty thirty five exactly.
I think we've as an automotive industry, have proven that we've been able to do more with less over the over one hundred years that the internal combustion engine has been around and in the marketplace. So I think we have a track record to prove that we're able to do that. So let us keep doing that. We believe that evs are part of our future, but they're not the only future.
Okay, And Karen, you say that small businesses might not be able to shift to the EV industry fast enough. Which small businesses are you talking about the ones who trick out the cars?
Well, that's actually our industry. Ninety five percent of our membership is small businesses. And so when you think about small business that makes parts for engines, that modifies engines, or any part of that powertrain, it's not simply just shifting over. If so many people like to say that, oh, you should just transition, Well, if you make mufflers, or you make intakes or you make pistons, or you make
anything that's in that powertrain. Those don't exist on an eav and so you know, you're looking at entire swaths of the of the US economy, and especially the automotive sector simply just going away.
Right, because we're talking about I can't remember what was it, Hurts or something got a huge fleet of electric vehicles and they said because they don't have any maintenance.
Right, But then that's same. I don't know if it was Hurts or one of the other car agencies have also now been divesting of the vehicles as well for a couple of different reasons. But yeah, they've also been divesting of that fleet, and I.
Think part of that was because if there was damage, you have to basically replace the car. You can't fix the car like a mechanic can fix the car. That's not really an option.
Yeah, exactly, Okay, exactly. And even look at what just happened in the wildfires in the LA area. How many people that were in those impacted areas saw evs that were burned up on the side of the road that law enforcement and emergency services couldn't just simply tow it away. They had to have special handling in order to remove them from the affected areas. So I think that right there is a proofing point in the LA area.
Okay, so you're lobbying Congress to just like say, hey, you guys, hands off, just let us get there on our own. Don't slap these mandates on exactly.
So you've got California that pasted a rule that is putting this in place, the twenty thirty five ban on the gas and diesel vehicles. But the thing is, but under federal law, they have to get approval by the EPA. So in the days before the Biden administration left, their EPA went and signed off on this waiver. The issue that we really have with California's rule is the fact that eleven other states have signed on to follow it. And that's about forty percent of the American marketplace that
are going to be under California's rule. California's exemption that was given to them in the Federal Claim Air Act was supposed to be for California only, not California plus forty percent.
Okay, So well, California always says it sort of leads the nation. So are you going to Congress then to basically try to get something passed so that they can't do these mandates.
Yeah. So one of the things there's always obviously in Washington, there's always a million different proceide rule ways to do things. And so one of the things that we're pushing for right now is with called the Congressional Review Act and what it does that allows Congress to issue an approval
or disapproval of a federal agency's rule. So in the case of the EPA approving the California ban, it has been transmitted by the current EPA to Congress, which starts a sixty day window for Congress to issue a disapproval. That's what we're asking them to do, is to issue a disapproval of this rule that California has put in place.
Not only will it stop this internal combustion engine ban that California has put forward for forty percent of the country, but also it's going to be one of the first times in a very very very long time that Congress is going to be able to really kind of tell California what is not allowed under federal law.
Okay, Karen Bailey Chapman with SEMA, I would love to check in with you as we get closer and to hearing a decision on this, because I mean, it affects so many of us, you know.
So hopefully absolutely would love to all Right, well.
We'll plan on talking to you again, and we'll be watching what happens. SIMA, Senior Vice President Republican Government Affairs, Karen Billy Chapman.
Thank you, thank you,