Moore Plows Ahead With Disastrous California Vehicle Plan
Moore Plows Ahead With Disastrous California Vehicle Plan
In Wes Moore's Quest to Make Maryland Too Expensive to Live, the State Will Adopt the Advanced Clean Cars II rule
During the election, candidate Wes Moore claimed that he made “creating economic opportunity the central mission driving his candidacy.”
Governor Wes Moore may not have gotten that memo, because he is plowing forward with plans to make living Maryland economically untenable for anybody but the superwealthy.
The latest Moore scheme is the full implementation of the “Advanced Clean Cars II” rule that will force Maryland to follow California in requiring all cars sold in Maryland be fully electric by 2035.
As a press release from the Moore press shop puts it:
Governor Wes Moore today announced Maryland’s adoption of the multi-state Advanced Clean Cars II rule, a major step in the state’s acceleration to improve air quality and combat the effects of climate change. Maryland is moving quickly to adopt the regulation, which requires manufacturers to continuously increase the share of electric vehicles they sell, reaching 100% of passenger car and light truck sales by model year 2035.
“Today, we’re talking about a major transformation that is going to define this administration—and that’s how we turn Maryland from a state powered by oil and gas to a state powered by clean energy,” said Governor Moore. “I am confident that the state of Maryland can and will lead the clean energy revolution.”
The Advanced Clean Cars II rule is a vehicle emissions standard first adopted by California using its unique authority under the federal Clean Air Act. Now that California has adopted the standards, other states can follow suit.
Maryland has the most ambitious climate goals of any state in the nation and is recognized as a national leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while growing our state economy. The Advanced Clean Cars II rule, coupled with strong federal and state incentives, will be one of the state’s most important emissions reduction measures.
The potential cost to Maryland's consumers would be massive, starting with the cost of a car. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for an electric vehicle in April 2021 was $51,532. That's more than $11,000 higher than a full-size gas-powered car and nearly $30,000 more than the average compact car.[x] Less than 2% of the vehicles currently registered in the State are all-electric vehicles, with the overwhelming majority located in Anne Arundel, Howard, and Montgomery counties.
I also wrote at length about the issue here back in November. As a reminder, the all-electric fleet will be disastrous for Maryland for three main reasons:
All electric cars require electricity generation that will have to come from fossil-fuel power plants;
Electric Cars Generate Excessive Pollution due to lithium extraction and battery pollution;
Maryland’s pollution comes from primarily outside of Maryland.
And that says nothing about the excessive costs to taxpayers, a cost that will disproportionately fall on middle and working-class Marylanders. Not that the Democrats care about that.
Wes Moore and his Administration have the facts. But they do not have the courage to do the right thing. Instead of doing the right thing and protecting both the environment and the taxpayer, Wes Moore has decided to prioritize politics over people and follow California headlong into the abyss that will make Marylanders economically disadvantaged and hurt our environment.
As I wrote in November:
It’s clear that the all-electric mandate is coming to Maryland. It is going to create a nightmare for Maryland consumers and it is going to create an environmental disaster with all of the additional fossil-fuel power generation that will be required to power Maryland’s all-electric cars. The mandate to follow California standards remains a recipe for disaster. It is a mandate that both the Moore Administration and the General Assembly should, but won’t, seek to repeal and avoid.
If Wes Moore is still committed to the idea that creating economic opportunity the central mission of his administration, he sure did pick an ass backwards way to do it.