Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on climate change effect on transportation, Boeing and electric vehicles

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) – Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on Sunday about climate change’s effect on transportation.

“The reality is the effects of climate change are already upon us. In terms of our transportation, we’ve seen that in the form of everything, from heat waves that shouldn’t statistically even be possible,” Buttigieg said.

During the interview, Brennan and Buttigieg discussed Boeing and the safety measures the company has been taking.

“There’s an encouraging part and a concerning part. The encouraging part is we want Boeing and producer in the aviation space to have a culture of, ‘If you see something, say something.’ We want to make sure those mechanisms for reporting work. We have both whistleblower mechanisms to let us know something directly at the FAA, but in a healthy company that should also be happening with the company…If there were evidence of that, that would lead to direct action. I’m not here to make an accusation like that at this time. If anything we want you to err on the side of reporting. So, that’s the encouraging part. The concerning part, of course, is that any of those issues are happening at all, and that’s why Boeing is under a huge amount of scrutiny right now, including from the FAA. The administrator took the extraordinary step of saying that Boeing cannot increase their production until they’ve demonstrated that they can do it safely.”

Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation

Later in the interview, talks then came to electric vehicle, with Brennan saying that “269,000 electric vehicles were sold in the the U.S. market” before asking Buttigieg why there isn’t any movement in electric vehicles, to which the latter said:

“There are two things that I think are needed for that to happen even more quickly. One is the price, which is why the Inflation Reduction Act acted to cut the price of an electric vehicle. The second is making sure we have the charging network we need across America. Even though most EV owners will do most of their charging at home, if you live in an apartment building or you’re driving long distances, you need other options than those chargers. So that’s exactly what we’re working on. But, I want to talk about the bigger point here, and I take this very personally because I grew up in the industrial Midwest, literally in the shadow of broken down factories from car companies that did not survive into the turn of the century because they didn’t keep up with the times.”

Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation

To watch more of Brennan’s interview with Buttigieg, click here.