Whipping everyone into shape
Government by edict isn't just for the big boys in D.C.
A little while back I wrote about the idea that those who wish to buy cars in Delaware may be saddled with a reduced number of choices, none of which would have a standard internal combustion engine.
Recently I was sent the results of a poll that asked the very question: "Some say we should ban the sale of new cars and trucks in Delaware that are powered by gasoline or diesel and only allow the sale of new electric cars. Do you support or oppose a ban on the sale of new cars and trucks that are powered by gasoline or diesel?"
In the poll, which was commissioned by the Caesar Rodney Institute, the public loudly spoke out against the proposal by a margin of 73% to 18%. It didn’t matter the county or the political party, the majority didn’t favor the idea. (The poll also found voters were less likely to re-elect a politician who supported the idea.) And while the Ragner Research Partners is considered more of a Republican pollster, the fact that an earlier poll commissioned by another group on a similar topic conducted by Ragner had what could be construed as an opposite result seems to lend credence to these numbers. Personally I would be in the majority with the Delaware poll but the minority in the national one.
Of course, I’m one of those who believes that the reason electric cars have the modest popularity they do have is their value for virtue signaling. I can’t say I don’t think a Tesla is a neat-looking car, but as a practical matter I have no interest in buying one because I live 18 miles from work, 9 miles from the nearest reasonably-sized grocery store, and 2 miles from a gas station. Nor do I want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars upgrading my home electrical service just to accommodate a car when I can spend less money to buy something much more practical. Yet my state government wants to deny me that choice because a legislature in a mostly warm-weather state that, unfortunately, has atmospheric conditions which are such to make smog an issue - and which is almost 50 times larger in population, meaning there are many more car dealers there - said so, and we foolishly tied our fate to theirs. I don’t think so.
Yet to rid ourselves of this mandate that’s sure to come because there’s enough pie-in-the-sky types in our legislature’s majority party who believe in the folly of manmade climate change, we will either have to roll the dice in court or get rid of the existing majority. On the latter point, we’ve seen for years that Congress is deeply unpopular, but it’s always everyone else’s scoundrel that’s the problem. You’re going to have almost as hard of a time finding a Democrat who doesn’t believe the climate change BS as you will to find a Republican willing to run and put together a credible campaign on that and other issues. I wonder what a poll that asked the question, “you’d buy an electric car to save the planet, wouldn’t you?” would do - I suspect that would fall more in line with the partisan leanings in the state, or the second Ragner poll I cited about the government’s role in energy research.
Another question in the Delaware poll asked about a ban on natural gas or propane hookups for new buildings, a question that’s become a concern given Uncle Sam’s notion about banning gas stoves I touched on several weeks ago.
By a similar margin (68-20) to the ban on gas-powered cars (73-18), the voters of the state hated the idea of mandating all-electric houses. Now there are many places in Delaware where the only gas choice you have is propane, but people would still like to have that option. While natural gas and propane seem to have lost most of their price advantage over electricity, propane is still a very popular option for cooking and heating around these parts.
Yet, as the folks at Caesar Rodney remind us, “These regulatory actions were initiated by executive orders by Governor Carney.” They ask people to contact the Governor and their legislators.
We can do that, but the real issue is one of timing. Next year we have a governor’s race, and just like Joe Biden did to Donald Trump, anything done by executive order can be reversed. It just takes the right governor, one with the heaping helping of common sense we need to get the First State to be first again.