By: Howard Ball
Electric cars are the future, and the future in that sense is here. Nowhere else is this truer than the west coast of the United States. California Governor, Democrat Gavin Newsome, just issued an executive order mandating that, by 2035, all new passenger cars sold in the state must be zero-emission vehicles. [1] Transportation emissions account for more greenhouse gas emissions in California than any other source,[2] and Governor Newsome claims the order is a big step toward reducing the state’s massive carbon footprint.[3]
The order is aimed at new-car sales and there, as there is no plan for the prohibition on Californians owning or selling pre-existing gas-powered vehicles.[4] The order also states that “where feasible,” operations in the trucking industry are mandated to go zero-emission by 2045. [5] The order then presents a vague request upon the state legislature to stop issuing new hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024—less than five years from now.[6] The California Air Resources Board will enforce the regulations.[7] Newsome’s order is in many ways the culmination of a decades’ long goal, as the state first mandated in 1998 that only 2% of new cars sold had to be zero-emission.[8] In Europe, similar mandates have already been in the works. New passenger cars in Norway have to be carbon emissions-free by 2025, in the U.K. by 2035, and in France by 2040.[9]
Credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/dzi83tDenUY
Unsurprisingly, the oil, gas, and auto lobbies have not responded favorably. Rock Zierman, chief executive of the California Independent Petroleum Association, was quoted as saying:
Let’s be clear: Today’s announcement to curb in-state production of energy will put thousands of workers in the Central Valley, Los Angeles basin, and Central Coast on the state’s overloaded unemployment program, drive up energy costs when consumers can least afford it, and hurt California’s fight to lower global greenhouse gas emissions.[10]
The order will force drastic changes on many industries in a “state that’s built major parts of its economy, as well as housing and business development around the internal combustion engine.”[11] Newsome’s new mandate has been criticized for being inconsistent with “the other critical half of the climate problem—California’s dirty oil production.”[12] Both houses of California’s Democratic-dominated Legislature endorsed the bill,[13] and will surely be added to a long list of litigation in which Sacramento is currently engaged with the Trump Administration.[14] A spokesman for the White House recently said, “[t]his is yet another example of how extreme the left has become.”[15]
It should be no surprise that California continues to lead the way in clean energy, and more broadly, climate-change policy. The Newsome Administration has made climate-change policy a top priority in a state that already leans left.[16] With that in mind, it is no surprise that car producers are increasingly being called upon to lower the carbon footprints of their vehicles. However, gas-fueled vehicles remain a staple on American roads; they have been around longer, are more recognizable, more reliable, and most importantly, cheaper than electrics.[17]
Despite being hailed as the future of road transportation, growth in the electric-vehicle market is currently slowing down.[18] Another major concern is source of power because the order does not address precisely where the energy required to charge these vehicles will come from.[19] In a state where the largest utility companies routinely disconnect large sections of their power lines to prevent wildfires from sparking, adding millions of electric vehicles to the grid could be problematic.[20] A spokesman for Ford recently stated that “[p]rogress requires public-private partnerships, smart infrastructure and key resources that encourage consumers to invest in electrified products.”[21] For the sake of the auto industry, oil and gas industry and California drivers, one can only hope that California knows what it is doing.
[1][1] Governor Newsome Announces California Will Phase Out Gasoline-Powered Cars & Drastically Reduce Demand for Fossil Fuel in California’s Fight Against Climate Change, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, (Sep. 23, 2020) https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change [https://perma.cc/U8GX-DLR6].
[2] Katie Fehrenbacher, 5 Things to Know about California’s Gas Car Sales Ban, GreenBiz, (Sept. 30, 2020) https://www.greenbiz.com/article/5-things-know-about-californias-gas-car-sales-ban [https://perma.cc/X88Z-CVR9].
[3] Supra note 1.
[4] Brad Plumer and Jill Cowan, California Plans to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in 15 Years, The New York Times, (Sept. 23, 2020) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/climate/california-ban-gas-cars.html [https://perma.cc/NB7R-WAVX].
[5] Supra note 1.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Alejandro Lazo, et al., California to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars Starting in 2035, The Wall Street Journal, (Sept. 23, 2020) https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-to-ban-sales-of-new-gas-powered-cars-starting-in-2035-11600882738 [https://perma.cc/5J9H-XX4A].
[9] Id.
[10] Plumer and Cowan, supra note 4.
[11] Fehrenbacher, supra note 2.
[12] Plumer and Cowan, supra note 4.
[13] Lazo, et al., supra note 8.
[14] Katy Stech Ferek and Alejandro Lazo, Trump: Administration Is Revoking California Emissions Waiver, The Wall Street Journal, (Sept. 18, 2019) https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-revoking-california-emissions-waiver-11568821295 [https://perma.cc/2CXM-YMWF].
[15] Lazo, et al., supra note 8.
[16] Plumer and Cowan, supra note 4; Lazo, et al., supra note 8.
[17] Car and Driver Research, How Much Is an Electric Car?, Car and Driver, https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a31544842/how-much-is-an-electric-car [https://perma.cc/UHL8-3GLU] (last visited Oct. 23, 2020).
[18] Thomas Gersdorf, et al., McKinsey Electric Vehicle Index: Europe Cushions a Global Plunge in EV Sales, McKinsey & Company, (July 17, 2020) https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/mckinsey-electric-vehicle-index-europe-cushions-a-global-plunge-in-ev-sales# [https://perma.cc/H58H-KZPR].
[19] Lazo, et al., supra note 8.
[20] Id.
[21] Id.