Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Vehicles. Man, there's a lotgoing on in the world today, and
joining us is a guy who Iwould consider to be quite an expert when
it comes to vehicles is Mickey Anderson. He's the president and CEO of the
Baxter Auto Group. Mickey, firstof all, thanks for coming to the
studio and hanging out with us alittle bit today. It's my pleasure.
Thanks for the invitation. I appreciateit. Yeah, So I got in
a note that you are a partof, you know, in coalition Partners
(00:22):
along with the American Petroleum Institute,have filed a lawsuit to try to kind
of fight some of the electric vehiclemandates that are being thrown out there by
the EPA and a pretty quick timelinehere. So without me even just trying
to guess and understand this, I'mgoing to let you, from your perspective
try to explain what this lawsuit isand what you guys are kind of trying
(00:44):
to prevent. Sure. So it'sthis has been kind of an ongoing issue
with the EPA, and at itsessence, it's a mandate that would require
two out of every three cars soldby twenty thirty two to be all electric
to a plug in BEV. Andthis whole my involvement started last year when
(01:07):
I was part of five thousand dealersthat wrote a letter to the Biden administration
and then a follow up letter justsaying you need to tap the brakes on
this. I would tell you that, speaking for personally myself, and then
of course our consumers, the Americanconsumers really dialed into wanting to reduce their
carbon footprint. And so this iswhat I would say is a common goal.
(01:29):
And quite frankly, the EPA's aimsare virtuous, and I really applaud
them. It's really the execution thatwe have challenged. And when you think
about reducing carbon. Certainly an allelectric vehicle has zero carbon coming out of
the tailpipe, it doesn't mean it'szero carbon entirely. They haven't ever quantified
how much carbon would go into theelectricity that would power the car. But
(01:53):
the reality is the practicality of anall electric vehicle is varies by re and
right now, the longest range youcan buy is going to be approaching three
hundred miles, but most of themare going to be more in the two
hundred to two hundred and fifty milerange, and in places like Nebraska where
we have big geography, those arejust not practical vehicles. The other challenge,
(02:20):
of course, is charging and settingaside. You know where all the
electricity would come from. The charginginfrastructure is very nascent. The same EPA
that came up with this mandate alsocame up with the follow up that they
would need to have two point eightmillion charging stations across the country by twenty
thirty two to be able to servicethe cars. And right now that number
(02:43):
stands at one hundred and sixty fivethousand. Wow. Yeah, So in
the Inflation Reduction Act there was aboutseven point five billion dollars set aside to
start building out charging stations. They'vebeen at it for a little over a
year and they've built exactly eight.The simple math is you'd have to eight
like the number eight, the numbereight just like approaching ten. And so
(03:07):
the math is to get to thetwo point eight million that the ep eight
believes needs to be exist to servicethe fleet, you'd have to build eight
hundred or open eight hundred a dayevery single day, starting right now,
for the next nine years. Thefuture state, if this mandate remains unchanged,
would be kind of a stranded Americanconsumer and a whole bunch of Americans
(03:30):
that are deprived of affordable, reliable, kind of practical transportation that they need.
And so therefore this is our option, been being unsuccessful in getting to
the Biden administration administration to just slowthe EPA down. Just challenging the mandate
(03:50):
in court is kind of the nextobvious chance. We're talking with Mickey Anderson,
he's the president and CEO of BaxterAuto Group. I think the timeline
is rushed because I think the scienceof the climate change conversation is, well,
we have like four and a halfyears or something like that to try
(04:11):
to stop what we're doing for irreversibledamage on the ozone layer and for Earth
as a whole, and trying toline that up with our economy and even
what the rest of the world isdoing, which obviously we have very little
control over. What would be amore practical answer, though, considering that,
it just seems insane, insanely unreasonablethe timeline that they are putting on
(04:35):
with the electric vehicle mandate, andlike you said, eight hundred charging stations
a day for the next nine years, when we've built eight in a year,
it's probably not a great look asto what the future is holding.
Based on that kind of pace,we are not off to a good start.
So the reality is I take thisas seriously as anybody. I have
(04:58):
six kids. I certainly want theearth to be healthy in a great place
for them to grow up in,so I'm very interested in this. The
reality is there's two hundred and seventyeight million vehicles rolling around the country and
the average age is twelve and ahalf years old. To really reduce carbon
in the country, what you needto do is you need to start eliminating
(05:19):
the oldest in the least efficient carsand replacing them with more efficient cars.
A Ford Expedition built today has twentyfive twenty five percent better fuel efficiency than
the same car that's from ten yearsago. So today's newer internal combustion engines
already achieve the goal of reducing carbonoutput. But if you really wanted to
(05:42):
reduce it, you could take ablend of battery electric which are perfect for
some people, and all the productsthat are out there are really amazing.
Anyone that owns one I can tellyou that. But then you can also
supplement them with plug in hybrids andtrue hybrids, and one of the interesting
facts is that if you take therare earth minerals that would go into one
(06:04):
battery electric vehicle, there's about fivehundred pounds or so of lithium and cobalt,
nickel and other elements. That onebattery has enough rare earth minerals to
make ninety hybrids. And if thoseninety hybrids replaced in ninety internal combustion engines,
they'd eliminate thirty seven times the carbonof the one battery electric And the
(06:29):
problem with the mandate is they don'tgive any credit really for plug in hybrids
or hybrids. So there is apath, and it's a faster path,
and it's a more reliable path,and it also marries up with consumer demand.
And that's the one thing that we'rereally speaking out on behalf of is
the American consumer that really requires thosevarious options to be suitable for varying lifestyles.
(06:50):
We when you talk about the hybrids, the fact that I could just
drive around town, go to work, maybe drive downtown with my wife,
come back, plug the car andI'm not gonna or trouble with that,
Or if i have to drive sevenhours one direction, there's no way I'm
going to be able to make thaton my charge, to be able to
flip that over into a gasoline vehicleseems to make all the sense in the
world for people who live in theMidwest if we're going to go that direction
(07:14):
for sure. Yeah, and allof the electric vehicles, hybrid and pure
electrics are less efficient in extremely coldclimates that a lot of energy has to
be used on actually warming the batteryso that it can work. So there's
a chemistry to it that makes itless suitable in cold weather climates. So
in all, electric future is nota feasible path to reducing carbon We're talking
(07:39):
with Mickey Anderson, who's the president'sCEO of Baxter Auto Group. So this
lawsuit is, you know, tryingto achieve just letting them know on behalf
of the American consumer that this justisn't going to make sense for the consumer
based on the timeline that is providedhere. But for people that are saying,
okay, well, you're telling methat these you know, these older
vehicles are a much less sufficient,But I still have a newer gasoline vehicle,
(08:01):
which is my story. I justhave a regular gasoline vehicle. But
it's just a couple of years old. Is there a change kind of in
the way that the efficiency is forthat vehicle and are we still from your
perspective, able to move in theright direction with those still being available over
the next few years. Yeah.Absolutely, And interestingly so this is a
(08:22):
coalition of the American Patroleum the Institute, and car dealers, but then also
farm growers in the Farm Bureau.The reality is Nebraska is likely to play
a large role in the future ofmobility. Aside from electric variants, there
(08:43):
are some emerging fuel options, manyof them that would be the corn based
fuels and others that can again comein and really radically reduce the amount of
carbon that vehicles are emitting. Asyou look forward, the path is probably
going to be paved with many differentoptions and we're going to get to that
(09:09):
zero carbon future using a myriad oftechnologies, not just one technology, which
is kind of the way things tendto work. Is there a way people
can find out more about what youguys do over at baxtrato and if they
have any questions on stuff like this, I'm sure you guys would be able
as a team to be able tohelp them out. Well. Sure,
yeah, we we have a webwebsite, Backstrada dot com, and we
(09:30):
certainly would invite anyone to jump onthere and look at the offerings that we
have, and we have them all. We have a lot of great electric
options as well as hybrid and moretraditional engines. But then you know,
to google the EPA EV mandate andlook at it, you know, write
your congressman, writes your senator,you know, way in on this.
(09:52):
The Because it's a policy issue determinedby the EPA, there really hasn't been
a lot of public input and that'sprobably what's missing. The public are just
not getting a chance to understand theissue and then speak out against it.
Mickey Anderson, CEO and president atBaxter Auto Group, thanks so much for
coming in explaining this to us,and thanks for looking out for the American
consumer. Oh it's been pleasure.Thanks so much. Thanks for all you
(10:15):
do. Froma absolutely we'll have totalk again sometime
Vehicles. Man, there's a lotgoing on in the world today, and
joining us is a guy who Iwould consider to be quite an expert when
it comes to vehicles is Mickey Anderson. He's the president and CEO of the
Baxter Auto Group. Mickey, firstof all, thanks for coming to the
studio and hanging out with us alittle bit today. It's my pleasure.
Thanks for the invitation. I appreciateit. Yeah, So I got in
a note that you are a partof, you know, in coalition Partners
(00:22):
along with the American Petroleum Institute,have filed a lawsuit to try to kind
of fight some of the electric vehiclemandates that are being thrown out there by
the EPA and a pretty quick timelinehere. So without me even just trying
to guess and understand this, I'mgoing to let you, from your perspective
try to explain what this lawsuit isand what you guys are kind of trying
(00:44):
to prevent. Sure. So it'sthis has been kind of an ongoing issue
with the EPA, and at itsessence, it's a mandate that would require
two out of every three cars soldby twenty thirty two to be all electric
to a plug in BEV. Andthis whole my involvement started last year when
(01:07):
I was part of five thousand dealersthat wrote a letter to the Biden administration
and then a follow up letter justsaying you need to tap the brakes on
this. I would tell you that, speaking for personally myself, and then
of course our consumers, the Americanconsumers really dialed into wanting to reduce their
carbon footprint. And so this iswhat I would say is a common goal.
(01:29):
And quite frankly, the EPA's aimsare virtuous, and I really applaud
them. It's really the execution thatwe have challenged. And when you think
about reducing carbon. Certainly an allelectric vehicle has zero carbon coming out of
the tailpipe, it doesn't mean it'szero carbon entirely. They haven't ever quantified
how much carbon would go into theelectricity that would power the car. But
(01:53):
the reality is the practicality of anall electric vehicle is varies by re and
right now, the longest range youcan buy is going to be approaching three
hundred miles, but most of themare going to be more in the two
hundred to two hundred and fifty milerange, and in places like Nebraska where
we have big geography, those arejust not practical vehicles. The other challenge,
(02:20):
of course, is charging and settingaside. You know where all the
electricity would come from. The charginginfrastructure is very nascent. The same EPA
that came up with this mandate alsocame up with the follow up that they
would need to have two point eightmillion charging stations across the country by twenty
thirty two to be able to servicethe cars. And right now that number
(02:43):
stands at one hundred and sixty fivethousand. Wow. Yeah, So in
the Inflation Reduction Act there was aboutseven point five billion dollars set aside to
start building out charging stations. They'vebeen at it for a little over a
year and they've built exactly eight.The simple math is you'd have to eight
like the number eight, the numbereight just like approaching ten. And so
(03:07):
the math is to get to thetwo point eight million that the ep eight
believes needs to be exist to servicethe fleet, you'd have to build eight
hundred or open eight hundred a dayevery single day, starting right now,
for the next nine years. Thefuture state, if this mandate remains unchanged,
would be kind of a stranded Americanconsumer and a whole bunch of Americans
(03:30):
that are deprived of affordable, reliable, kind of practical transportation that they need.
And so therefore this is our option, been being unsuccessful in getting to
the Biden administration administration to just slowthe EPA down. Just challenging the mandate
(03:50):
in court is kind of the nextobvious chance. We're talking with Mickey Anderson,
he's the president and CEO of BaxterAuto Group. I think the timeline
is rushed because I think the scienceof the climate change conversation is, well,
we have like four and a halfyears or something like that to try
(04:11):
to stop what we're doing for irreversibledamage on the ozone layer and for Earth
as a whole, and trying toline that up with our economy and even
what the rest of the world isdoing, which obviously we have very little
control over. What would be amore practical answer, though, considering that,
it just seems insane, insanely unreasonablethe timeline that they are putting on
(04:35):
with the electric vehicle mandate, andlike you said, eight hundred charging stations
a day for the next nine years, when we've built eight in a year,
it's probably not a great look asto what the future is holding.
Based on that kind of pace,we are not off to a good start.
So the reality is I take thisas seriously as anybody. I have
(04:58):
six kids. I certainly want theearth to be healthy in a great place
for them to grow up in,so I'm very interested in this. The
reality is there's two hundred and seventyeight million vehicles rolling around the country and
the average age is twelve and ahalf years old. To really reduce carbon
in the country, what you needto do is you need to start eliminating
(05:19):
the oldest in the least efficient carsand replacing them with more efficient cars.
A Ford Expedition built today has twentyfive twenty five percent better fuel efficiency than
the same car that's from ten yearsago. So today's newer internal combustion engines
already achieve the goal of reducing carbonoutput. But if you really wanted to
(05:42):
reduce it, you could take ablend of battery electric which are perfect for
some people, and all the productsthat are out there are really amazing.
Anyone that owns one I can tellyou that. But then you can also
supplement them with plug in hybrids andtrue hybrids, and one of the interesting
facts is that if you take therare earth minerals that would go into one
(06:04):
battery electric vehicle, there's about fivehundred pounds or so of lithium and cobalt,
nickel and other elements. That onebattery has enough rare earth minerals to
make ninety hybrids. And if thoseninety hybrids replaced in ninety internal combustion engines,
they'd eliminate thirty seven times the carbonof the one battery electric And the
(06:29):
problem with the mandate is they don'tgive any credit really for plug in hybrids
or hybrids. So there is apath, and it's a faster path,
and it's a more reliable path,and it also marries up with consumer demand.
And that's the one thing that we'rereally speaking out on behalf of is
the American consumer that really requires thosevarious options to be suitable for varying lifestyles.
(06:50):
We when you talk about the hybrids, the fact that I could just
drive around town, go to work, maybe drive downtown with my wife,
come back, plug the car andI'm not gonna or trouble with that,
Or if i have to drive sevenhours one direction, there's no way I'm
going to be able to make thaton my charge, to be able to
flip that over into a gasoline vehicleseems to make all the sense in the
world for people who live in theMidwest if we're going to go that direction
(07:14):
for sure. Yeah, and allof the electric vehicles, hybrid and pure
electrics are less efficient in extremely coldclimates that a lot of energy has to
be used on actually warming the batteryso that it can work. So there's
a chemistry to it that makes itless suitable in cold weather climates. So
in all, electric future is nota feasible path to reducing carbon We're talking
(07:39):
with Mickey Anderson, who's the president'sCEO of Baxter Auto Group. So this
lawsuit is, you know, tryingto achieve just letting them know on behalf
of the American consumer that this justisn't going to make sense for the consumer
based on the timeline that is providedhere. But for people that are saying,
okay, well, you're telling methat these you know, these older
vehicles are a much less sufficient,But I still have a newer gasoline vehicle,
(08:01):
which is my story. I justhave a regular gasoline vehicle. But
it's just a couple of years old. Is there a change kind of in
the way that the efficiency is forthat vehicle and are we still from your
perspective, able to move in theright direction with those still being available over
the next few years. Yeah.Absolutely, And interestingly so this is a
(08:22):
coalition of the American Patroleum the Institute, and car dealers, but then also
farm growers in the Farm Bureau.The reality is Nebraska is likely to play
a large role in the future ofmobility. Aside from electric variants, there
(08:43):
are some emerging fuel options, manyof them that would be the corn based
fuels and others that can again comein and really radically reduce the amount of
carbon that vehicles are emitting. Asyou look forward, the path is probably
going to be paved with many differentoptions and we're going to get to that
(09:09):
zero carbon future using a myriad oftechnologies, not just one technology, which
is kind of the way things tendto work. Is there a way people
can find out more about what youguys do over at baxtrato and if they
have any questions on stuff like this, I'm sure you guys would be able
as a team to be able tohelp them out. Well. Sure,
yeah, we we have a webwebsite, Backstrada dot com, and we
(09:30):
certainly would invite anyone to jump onthere and look at the offerings that we
have, and we have them all. We have a lot of great electric
options as well as hybrid and moretraditional engines. But then you know,
to google the EPA EV mandate andlook at it, you know, write
your congressman, writes your senator,you know, way in on this.
(09:52):
The Because it's a policy issue determinedby the EPA, there really hasn't been
a lot of public input and that'sprobably what's missing. The public are just
not getting a chance to understand theissue and then speak out against it.
Mickey Anderson, CEO and president atBaxter Auto Group, thanks so much for
coming in explaining this to us,and thanks for looking out for the American
consumer. Oh it's been pleasure.Thanks so much. Thanks for all you
(10:15):
do. Froma absolutely we'll have totalk again sometime
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