Editor;
The day many of us hoped was coming is here.
Given the choice of breathing or continuing to drive our big bad gas guzzlers it appears our leaders have chosen breathing over living in a smoggy city. I for one approve of that choice.
I’m sure we’ll hear the usual arguments today, tomorrow, over the next 10 years – “We’re not ready,” “EV’s have no range” “But I drive my car to work” “They’re not as good for the environment as you think” etc etc etc. Someone had to make a move away from oil. I’m glad it wqs California.
Thursday’s vote is historic. For decades we have been fighting to curb the impact of motor vehicle pollution, preferring to kick the can further down the road to future generations while continuing to make and drive the cars creating the smog that hurts us and our environment.
I hope people realize that we are finally making the decisions needed break our reliance on fossil fuels and – I hope – turn our attention to developing cleaner alternatives.
Hopefully,
David Minihan/Concord
Cleaner. Quieter. Fewer parts. More reliable. OK, so every once in a while a Tesla burns your house down, we’ll work those bugs out. If we can get a Jolt station at every truck stop, every national park, and every mall in America we may have something to aim for even if we can’t call that a plan. This could be a BFD, and California will lead. Big fossil fuel companies (and certain fascist autocracies) will lose their juice, following in the spit trail of Big Tobacco. Ewww, sorry about that image. Now, if only we could do something about Big Food…Supersize me!
You are really a victim of the hype.
OMG! WE? what a bunch of morons believing your demon masters. The batteries cost more than the cars, we have power shut off all the time, many cannot afford electric cars or have a place to charge them, nor do they want them. They cannot control the climate, that is God’s job and He does it free.
OMG! It’s so TOTally like a demon sheep ad diss.
Poor you! You really are the victim here. Demons!
God needs a little help.
I agree the cost of electric cars and the environmental impact of their batteries in addition to our sketchy power delivery system has me keeping my gas powered vehicle!
Also Governor newsome says he plans to tax electric cars on the number of miles you drive a year to make up for that portion of the gasoline tax that electric car owners are not paying. So the benefits are not going to be so great anymore. I also don’t like the idea the car companies can supposedly turn off your electric car. I know it’s kind of conspiracy theory but what better way to take over a country than to turn off everybody’s transportation?
One last thing, something people don’t realize but up to 29% of the bay area’s pollution blows over from China. So is green as we want to be we’re still going to have pollution.
How are people who park on the street or live in apartments supposed to charge these things? What about trucks that tow trailers ? They supposed to stop all the time and charge up? This is asinine. All the electricity from them is generated by power plants fired by hydrocarbons. Oh and wait for the rolling blackouts when the grid is overloaded by all these cars charging at once.
When the horseless carriage became affordable to the ordinary Joe, the market for buggy whips collapsed, simply vanished. Motor clubs sprang up like artesian springs to help “motorists” navigate the muddy “roads” such as they were. Gas stations sprouted like Death Cap mushrooms to fill the travel motorists’ needs. When the conservative Republican administration launched the massive, massive, interstate highway project. It was fait accompli.
Which brings us to today’s new government investments into our travel future.
Most buggy whips eventually wound up in the trash. Still, a hundred or so years later, they became valued again, as a collectible.
Thank You for Smoking (2005)
EVs are dangerously quiet. Vehicles need to be heard. This is a pipedream.
Most definitely — especially as people are rarely if ever harmed by someone is a gas guzzling, smoke belching vehicle. https://www.bicycling.com/news/a37808647/texas-driver-assaults-six-cyclists/
Natural gas used in the home is dangerously odorless. There is a fix for that. Odor is added. Problem solved. EVs are dangerously quiet. There is a fix for that. Add sound. That doesn’t sound like one of our biggest challenges.
My opinion is this whole EV legislation at the state level and other such things at the federal level show a breathtaking lack of leadership and competence. It is just amazing. We are being told to significantly change our lives at great expense and difficulty just because the top politicians seem to tell us to or we face a planet killing future. There is no leadership, no convincing, no justification except commands on the level of how a stern parent would order a child to not eat the cookies. Countries like China and India are getting 70 percent of their electricity from coal and China is on a massive coal fired electrical power plant building boom.
One source says that when the new Chinese plants come on line by 2030, then China will be generating around 13 to 14 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. In California, the state Air Resources Board says that forcing new cars in California to be zero-emission after 2035 will save 384 million tons of carbon dioxide between 2026 and 2040. That is 15 years so the annual savings is 384 divided by 15, or 25.6 million tons a year????? Is that right? Please correct me if you can find something other than that! China would be producing 13 to 14 billion tons a year, and our EV program would save 25 million??? Please check the math. If that is right, it is insane like fighting your house fire by running the water in the kitchen sink. How about the federal government acting like a federal government to work with China and India to slow their pollution and try to show us some alternatives?
“One source says” or alternatively “some people say”…look over here! What about that?
You are looking at it! You are witnessing leadership in a time of feckless sycophancy! Standing tall and leading the world. When the fifth largest economy, the fully-employed powerhouse of California takes the lead, states and nations will follow. We build it; they will come. Doubters will sit and watch while builders build. This kind of generational change never proceeds in a straight line, but surely there is no mistaking the direction.
If there is a marketplace for internal combustion vehicles and incandescent bulbs in Indiana and Mississippi, so be it. Let it smolder there without consequence. No major manufacturer will be running separate production lines to accommodate shrinking markets. They are for-profit businesses.
As much as I like EVs (and I drive one daily) — it is not practical for everyone and every situation. Instead of injecting itself into place where it shouldn’t be, our beloved government should try to actually solve some more pressing issues. May I suggest paying more attention to crime levels for example? Or homelessness? Or education?.. Or really anything that is actually meaningful rather than telling Californians what kind of car we can or can not drive.