Trump administration suing to scrap California's EV mandate
Trump administration suing California over electric vehicle mandate
The Trump administration is suing California over its electric vehicle mandate. The federal lawsuit says the state cannot force its own mileage requirements on carmakers.
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is suing California over its electric vehicle (EV) mandate. The federal lawsuit says California cannot force its own mileage requirements on carmakers and that the EV mandate is a way to do exactly that.
Who killed the EV?
Who killed the EV? No one ever did or ever will until something better comes along. Improving technology kept and keeps it alive.
Federal law requires carmakers to attain an average miles-per-gallon standard for all their models. Some vehicles will be over the average and some under it. EVs get gasoline equivalent mileage far better than fossil fuel vehicles.
‘Meritless lawsuit’
President Trump wants that thrown out. The governor's response was to say, "This lawsuit is meritless, and we're not backing down from this fight." "While the Trump administration surrenders the future of the auto industry to China, California will continue competing globally to win the clean vehicle market."
The electric future
"We're cutting off our nose to spite our faces here," said Chris Bowe, a popular Bay-Area-based YouTuber, blogger and speaker whose BowefamilyEV reports and Turned Down For Watt podcasts have been viewed by more than a million people.
He calls himself an EV enthusiast, not an evangelist. "You know it's disappointing to have the government be antagonistic towards EVs and towards states. This is jobs. This is the future. We need to be in it. We are falling behind when it comes to manufacturing this type of stuff," said Bowe.
RethinkX is a San Francisco-based, independent, not-for-profit futurist think tank that analyzes and forecasts the speed, scale, and societal implications of technology-driven disruptions. EVs are becoming a grand disrupter of fossil fuels for many kinds of transportation.
"Those technologies that make an electric vehicle possible at an affordable price continue to improve. We've got a value proposition that will eventually compete with other offerings. We're going to go where we can get the best bang for our buck and increasing that's going to be in electric applications in most cases," said Dr. Adam Dorr, Rethinkx’s Research Director.
Playing catch up with the rest of the world
The rest of the world is quickly going pollution-free EV. "China is not going to wait for the U.S. or anyone else to sort out their internal regulatory fights," said Dr. Dorr. "You've got technology coming out of China that can charge all the way up to 80 plus percent in under 10 minutes," said Bowe.
What is the solution? "In general, governments and regulation need to get out of the way so that industry and markets can do what they do best, which is delivering better options at lower prices for consumers through competition," said Dorr.
Chris Bowe also says the irony is that a lot of EV and charging manufacturing is found in Red states, such as Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
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