The EV mandate rebellion
Seeing if you can fight City Hall, er, the Governor and his DNREC.
I’ve told you about the push to ban the ICE (internal combustion engine) here in Delaware a couple times, beginning with this oldie but goodie from just three months ago.
Since we weren’t in the street with pitchforks at the ready back then, the question is just how effective the next move will be: a series of townhall meetings beginning last night with the invited guests being Dr. David R. Legates, a former Delaware state climatologist, Dr. David Stevenson, a frequently-mentioned guest here from the Caesar Rodney Institute, and DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin. Of the three, I imagine there will be one no-show because, while his stance on this EV mandate isn’t popular, there ain’t nobody in the position to fire him. The little people can all eat cake.
The event is being sponsored by the House Republican Caucus, which is all well and good. But the problem is that they only have 15 members and need 21 to get anything even started, just as the Senate Republican Caucus is four short of getting anything done. We as a state had the opportunity to address this back in November but failed to do so. So we have to have more creative options.
According to Rep. Danny Short, there is another issue that will raise its ugly head:
Under these regulations, Delawareans seeking a new car will quickly find it difficult to purchase anything other than an EV. Dealerships in Maryland and New Jersey won’t be of any help. Those states are both imposing the same electric vehicle mandate on their citizens.
Additionally, buying a new fuel-powered vehicle anywhere out-of-state after the start of 2035 will not be possible. The new rules ban registering any new non-compliant vehicle in Delaware.
Since there are several states which seem to be on this same glide path regarding EVs and banning the ICE, here’s a free piece of advice for a state with sanity. You know how you see trailers all over the country with Maine plates? It’s because people don’t have to live there to register their vehicles, and it’s making Maine a fair bit of coin. It wouldn’t bother me to have another state’s plate on my new car (nudge, wink, nudge.) Don’t you know most of us have family members in other states?
Honestly, what this may require is the car dealer lobby to just tell Carney and DNREC to go pound sand on this one. Spend a little bit of the thousands and thousands of dollars you already toss around advertising on the local TV stations on spots educating people about this infringement on their personal choice. Otherwise, in 20 years the streets of Delaware may look like Cuba with all the pre-2035 ICE cars running around because the electrical infrastructure won’t be there for all those EVs.
Go to the meetings if you want to, melt the governor’s and DNREC’s phone lines, and so forth, but the state’s not listening. The only thing they will listen to is election results and a new leader who’s not afraid to clean house and use his bully pulpit.