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Electric Car Quotas Have a High Cost
Wall Street Journal ^ | January 25, 2021 | C. Boyden Gray

Posted on 01/26/2021 5:15:57 AM PST by karpov

President Biden can’t mandate that we all drive electric cars, but he’s opening the gates to an electric Trojan horse. In a day-one executive order, Mr. Biden began the process of rescinding a Trump administration rule, the first step toward greenlighting California’s electric car agenda. California and like-minded states plan to impose electric cars through production quotas—whether drivers want the cars or not.

California regulators call it a “zero-emissions vehicle” standard, but green propaganda shouldn’t obscure what’s really going on. Start with federal law. It requires the transportation secretary to set national average fuel-economy performance standards for car makers at the “maximum feasible” level without restricting consumer choice. Instead of mandating a given technology, federal fuel-economy standards allow car makers the freedom to decide how best to improve fuel economy at the lowest cost.

To promote efficiency, federal law broadly forbids state regulations “related to fuel economy standards.” Courts have held that this law forbids electric car quotas and similarly meddlesome command-and-control policies that seek to dictate how car makers should meet federal performance standards. The Golden State argues that a special exception made for California regulations in the Clean Air Act should also be read into the federal fuel-economy law. But that law’s text says no. It forbids fuel-economy regulation by any state—no exceptions.

Next, the policy. Congress pre-empted state laws in 1975 because sprinkling policies like state electric car quotas on top of federal fuel-economy standards makes no sense. An electric car quota in California would force car makers to meet national fuel-economy standards using one of the most expensive fuel-efficiency technologies, undermining consumer choice and increasing costs. One study from 2019 estimates that state electric car quotas will cost an extra $400 for every new car nationwide by 2025.

Those costs won’t be distributed equally.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: automotive; cars; electric; ev; fueleconomy
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To: karpov

Subsidies for the rich who can afford an electric car to enrish the wealthiest people on earth. YAY BIDEN.


21 posted on 01/26/2021 7:37:45 AM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes. )
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To: karpov

California tried this once before. It mandated 10% of all vehicles sold in CA must be all electric starting with the 2000 model year. I worked for GM at the time, and even spent some time working on this car. GM spent over $2 billion developing the GM EV and putting it into production. It was state-of-the-art for that era. At the last minute, CA realized the law was a total bust and repealed the law. A couple of years later GM went bankrupt. I’m quite sure GM could have avoided bankruptcy had it been able to keep the $2 billion. I, alone, lost over $1 million in the bankruptcy. Others lost much more.

Greenies call those of us ‘deniers’, who dismiss the fantasy of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. I call the fools who believe it ‘Truth Deniers’.


22 posted on 01/26/2021 7:48:05 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.)
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To: a fool in paradise

Electricity is free because it grows on trees.

Every good citizen knows that!


23 posted on 01/26/2021 7:52:08 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it.)
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To: cgbg

That’s only partly true. The trees must first be harvested and converted into walls. Electricity is generated by walls. I know that because most of the electricity I use comes out of my walls.


24 posted on 01/26/2021 7:57:24 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Joe Biden: The best president Chinese money can buy.)
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A few months ago I read an article from an auto industry analyst. He wrote that because of the European and Japanese requirements and quotas that we would eventually move to EVs over the next ten years. He wrote that the large automakers were not going to be able to afford two production lines focused on two drive trains.

Eventually, we will be moving electric for everything but specialty gas powered cars.

It doesn’t make me happy, but it puts the evolution into perspective.


25 posted on 01/26/2021 8:35:32 AM PST by Vermont Lt (We have entered "Insanity Week." Act accordingly.)
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To: SecondAmendment
What is this "Federal Court" I have head so much about as of late ?

it’s the place where people go and get paid to sit around in black robes and tell people they don’t have standing.

26 posted on 01/26/2021 9:07:10 AM PST by McGavin999 (biden is not my president )
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To: karpov
Related...

Joe Biden Signs Executive Order to Make All Federal Vehicles Electric

Nancy Pelosi's husband has plowed up to $1 million into bullish bets on Tesla stock

Coinkydink...?

27 posted on 01/27/2021 4:41:34 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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