Editorial: Gov. should put mpg rule in reverse, get neighbors out of park (NM)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | October 4, 2019 | ABQ Journal Editorial Board

[CedarDave]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham would get real traction combating climate change, as well as ground-level ozone – which can aggravate conditions like asthma, bronchitis and emphysema – by ensuring the Clean Car Promise she signed with 23 other governors brings more states into the fold and provides a unified standard for vehicle emissions.

Instead, she is mandating vehicles sold in New Mexico average 52 miles per gallon by model year 2022 – three years away.

... it doesn’t make sense to set fuel standards piecemeal, as the air we all breathe doesn’t acknowledge state boundaries.

And it is economically counterproductive to implement standards that are going to push vehicle dealerships and vehicle buyers across state lines. Colorado, which is in the Clean Car Promise alliance, has a more realistic emissions requirement of 36 mpg by 2025.

Guess where many New Mexicans will be headed for their next pickup truck purchase?

Meanwhile, one of the most high-profile players in the world of green vehicles, Tesla, can’t sell cars in New Mexico because its business model clashes with a state law that prohibits vehicle manufacturers from selling directly to consumers.

... Regardless, the move will certainly reduce choice for New Mexicans. Pickup trucks, for example, will be severely limited – this in a state with large swaths of agricultural area and large segments of the population who need to haul equipment and tools. It’s hard to imagine that landscaping crew showing up in a Prius.

Meanwhile, how are New Mexicans supposed to pay for these high-efficiency vehicles? A full quarter of our residents need government assistance for food. Soon they can only buy hybrids or electric cars? Those aren’t cheap. A 2019 Chevrolet Volt retails upward of $33,000.

[CedarDave]

Guess where many New Mexicans will be headed for their next pickup truck purchase?

In addition to Colorado, they didn't mention Texas. Our small business has bought our last several pickups from dealers in Lubbock and one of our employees bought a small car from a dealer in San Antonio.

Lujan-Grisham is really pissing off NM constituents with her support of legislative crackdown on firearms sales, new draconian regulations on the oil/gas industry, prohibiting electric generation from fossil fuels by 2045, proposing methane emission regulations, supporting adding a lizard to the ESA and now 52 mpg vehicles by 2022. It's imperative that we support and campaign for 2020 legislative candidates that can put the brakes on her radical left-wing and environmental agendas.

[CedarDave]

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[FewsOrange]

“Tesla, can’t sell cars in New Mexico because its business model clashes with a state law that prohibits vehicle manufacturers from selling directly to consumers. “

Stupidity

[Wuli]

Logic is not involved in the Dims feel good politics (do what makes us (them) feel good about ourselves).

They consitently pat themselves on the back for doing what makes them feel good, on policies that while fundamentally wrong anyway, will never achieve the true objectives they claim for them.

[bgill]

52 mpg. Must be made of light weight copy paper.

[posterchild]

A full quarter of our residents need government assistance for food.

They obviously have bigger problems.

[Vigilanteman]

Well, they do have those mopeds, don’t they?

[VietVet876]

That’s attainable using the Mexican overdrive for 95% of the total miles.

[SuperLuminal]

Love it when these things happen... Impresses (maybe) the consequences of voting for communists... N.M. made it’s bed..Sleep in it!

[hanamizu]

“Tesla, can’t sell cars in New Mexico ...”

---

And where does the electricity to power Teslas come from? Teslas are coal-burning cars in most places.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If I’m not mistaken, was not the airship of Jules Verne’s Robur the Conqueror made of compressed paper?

[SpaceBar]

She should resign.

[packrat35]

Hard to feel sorry for the people of New Mexico who elected her as she ran on these issues.