A Tuesday letter to the Cape Gazette questions what the Caesar Rodney Institute is stating in our opposition to Delaware banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035. Since this is a Delaware issue, we use Delaware data. This year, it appears that only 1% of new car sales will be full-battery electric vehicles. The proposed regulation states in three years, 35% of new auto sales must be EVs or plug-in hybrids. This is simply not practical.
Our critic complained that we did not discuss lowering greenhouse gases. The state is basing the legal justification for the regulation entirely on lowering emissions to meet air-quality standards. While the state is using emissions data from 2015-17 to support its position, available emissions data from 2020-22 reveals that Delaware is already meeting national air-quality standards. The state has no legal basis to write this regulation.
Our critic also noted we are not anticipating future improvements in EVs. Eventually EVs will cost a lot less, and taxpayers won’t have to shell out a $7,000 subsidy for them, and adequate charging infrastructure will be built ... but that’s not happening in three years. We believe that such good features will come to EVs, and as they do, EVs will sell well with no mandates.
States are weighing whether to adopt these severe California regulations or simply go with the federal low-emission vehicle standards. The federal standards have achieved an 80% to 90% reduction in motor vehicle air pollution. New tighter standards are being written, and as the older, higher-emitting vehicles are retired, emissions will continue to fall.
This all started with an executive order from Gov. Carney. A recent Cape Gazette web poll with 1,095 respondents asked, “Should Delaware ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035?” And 70% said no, while 18% said good idea but unrealistic. Let the governor know your opposition at Governor.Carney@Delaware.gov and drop a note to the agency at Kyle.Krall@Delaware.gov to let them know we should all follow the federal standard, not California’s.
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