I have deep concerns about the adverse impacts of the EV mandate and gas engine ban. The mandate has all the earmarks of an initiative that will negatively economic and transportation infrastructures for decades in Washington State, with no material ...↓
Key adverse impacts include:
(1) Unfair, and adverse economic impact on rural, farming, and working communities across Washington State. Replacing gas and diesel equipment is cost prohibitive for many across the state.
(2) The average cost of an EV exceeds $66,000 and remains largely unaffordable for many people. EV's are currently the province of the elite few, including those who ignore the core needs of the many in our state. Core needs in our state are unresolved and getting worse. Food insecurity, increasing crime and lawlessness, lack of working-class jobs, expensive housing costs, and onerous tax burdens. Time to focus on the basics.
(3) Our electric grid is fragile and vulnerable at the state and national level. There is no plausible or rational capability to support a quick transition to EV's. It is also important to note, that state energy security will also be weakened, if a move to one source of unpredictable energy is mandated. Imagine the outcome if a bad international actor attacks and shuts down WA State electric energy for a month. The Tesla's on Mercer Island, and mandated across the state, will be useless.
(4) The free-market economy is being completely ignored, and in my opinion government mandates have a long history of making problems worse not better.
(5) A change of this magnitude appears to be at least a 25-year initiative, and the first priority would be building a dependable electric grid across the state and America. A classic case of "putting the cart before the horse."
(6) I would challenge any of the supporting law makers to present a well-documented, in depth, "EV - Gas Engine Ban Plan," rigorous enough to withstand executive scrutiny at Fortune 100 companies. Cases studies, best practices, rigorous process improvement analysis, root cause analysis, cost benefit analysis, stakeholder analysis, citizen surveys should all be present to inform decision making.
(7) This initiative appears to be a cloistered and uniformed nod to Gavin Newsom, and California politics. Washington State is not California, and cookie cutter "head nod" solutions may not work here.
(8) Finally, the number one polluter in the world is China, with more than 10,065 million tons of CO2 released in 2020, and rising well more than any country in the world. What impact does this initiative have on China.
Perhaps Washington should ban the import of Chinese goods and services produced in primitive coal burning, child labor factories as a first step in solving adverse global climate impacts due to pollution. That includes batteries for EV's produced in Chinese coal burning factories. I would like to see the analysis that compares the total pollution produced by Chinese goods and services consumed in WA State, compared to current Washington gas and diesel engine output. My hypothesis – we would be shocked at the environmental impact of off-shore production!!
Government mandates are not the solution to a problem that requires nuanced and well-planned free market economy actions to solve the problem in the long term. Short-term knee jerk reactions will increase economic pain across the state, and will make the problem worse, not better.
Please do not pass mandates that force working people and rural communities in WA to buy EV's. The action would punish citizens in WA State and transfer wealth to international actors who have no intention to reduce pollution of any sort, from plastic in the oceans, to coal pollution plumes in the upper atmosphere.
↓
