Do not follow California’s harmful mandates

The following letter was sent to Gov. John Carney with a copy provided to the Cape Gazette for publication. It was edited for length. 

I am writing regarding the proposal that Delaware should ban the sale of gasoline vehicles after 2030 and adopt standards established by California. I can speak with some authority as I lived in California for 70-plus years before moving to Delaware in 2021. 

I am an attorney who still practices in California, although remotely. I am a person of some modicum of intelligence, having graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara and Loyola Law School. In my lifetime, I have seen California go from being a garden spot for people of all races, ages and backgrounds to a state in rapid decline. I fail to understand why anyone would want to adopt standards put forward by California when those standards are unworkable, arbitrary and harmful. Why do you think California is bleeding population to other states? 

I make this statement as someone who had an electric vehicle for several years. It was a good car, but not one I would rely on in bad weather or could depend on to be able to charge as quickly as needed. Electric cars have their place, but the adoption of them by the general population must be accomplished through the marketplace. Electric vehicles are getting better, but their cost is still out of the price range of most people. Forcing a person to purchase an electric vehicle, because of the cost, maintenance, extra cost of electricity and lack of charging stations, will unfairly burden minorities, the elderly, poor and retirees. 

In the past year, on I-95 in Virginia, a horrible snowstorm stranded hundreds of motorists. It took several days to rescue them. What would happen on Delaware roads if hundreds of electric cars became trapped in bad weather? How long will their batteries last? Do you want to be the governor that tells motorists to "suck it up" for the common good while they are trapped in their cars with their batteries running out and no heat? 

Has anyone examined the cost of battery replacements, their manufacture, the materials used to make them and where those materials come from? Has anyone thought through the cost to people in other countries working for pennies, in horrible conditions, to mine the ores needed to make the batteries? Obviously not. 

I am concerned, as any responsible citizen is, about climate change. I drove California freeways for years, inhaled the smog, cursed the traffic and got fed up with it all. But more destructive is the asinine, unworkable, ridiculous and overbearing mandates and laws promulgated by the one-party rule. Although Delaware is a blue state, I had hoped it would not lose its common sense.  

I ask that you pause and really think through whether following California is really what you want for Delaware. Allow electric cars to mature more. Let technology become more refined and cheaper. The marketplace is the best place to get people to alter habits. Remember the old saying, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." Don't mandate the sale of electric mousetraps. Don't make Delaware an East Coast version of California.