My Name is Grant Alford, and I am a professional automotive technician, diagnostician, and prior certified emissions specialist by the department of ecology in Washington State. I believe I have some credibility to my opinions as I fixed the cars tha...↓
I understand there is much in the way of improvements being made to these electric passenger vehicles everyday, but I don't think we can assume they are as flawless as they're being portrayed. The law of conservation should be enough for people to consider: if we have already produced usable vehicles - we are not being carbon neutral by junking them and continuing to pollute more by creating new cars to replace them. Not to mention the materials used to produce electric vehicles are much less safe and reusable than what we have with hybrid or gasoline powered vehicles. I don't think I even need to talk about the fact our grid is barely powered from renewable energy sources.
Ultimately I am very doubtful the State is making a decision that is truly in the best interest of it's own citizens. It's feels to me that if a state really did care about the topics of pollution and emissions, that they wouldn't have made decisions such as eliminating something as important as a clean air emissions program.
We as a state - let alone a country, cannot fully convert to electric vehicles at the rate we are going. One example from the model state of California: Just in the last year during heat waves. The officials asked the residents and encouraged them to not use their air conditioners at their normal capacity for the sake of the grid. Well if that's the current state of our model: we will quickly see the ramifications of this on our grid if the majority of people are forced to own electric vehicles.
Unfortunately I am not convinced the state of Washington is actually interested in hearing legitimate evidence that shows how detrimental mass electric vehicles like this would be. It does appear however, this would be an incredible opportunity for the state to acquire more money from it's residents and perhaps the federal government.
In Virginia among other states, registered low emissions vehicles such as hybrids have access to HOV lanes, which in turn can significantly cut down on idle emissions of vehicles sitting in traffic. Similarly when renewing your tabs, you are basically given an automatic tax credit which incentivizes people to purchase these types of vehicles. Well for such a "green state" our version of those laws/policies do not even compare. The best we have is bizarre time restraints and model year restrictions for tax credits on the same types of cars here in WA. I've also spoken to several individuals with newer electric and hybrid vehicles who reported paying several hundreds of dollars in tab fees every year.
So really, what sort of incentive is there as an individual to own a new or electric car in this state other than lawful force or social stigma?
I really think the state needs to bring some objective professionals into the thought process for policies like this; because It feels as though blatant evidence is being ignored. There is so many other contributing factors that need to be addressed in Washington State before making such a short sighted decision. It is certainly starting to feel more like a corporate business here instead of a home. I hope the people who have power in this process will make a decision that isn't arbitrary, and only benefits a select number of individuals.
-Grant Alford
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