Battle over California EVs rages, November 16, 1995 -- 11elec20.txt



Legislators to Air Board; "Scrap the Electric Car Mandate!" -- Elected

officials and others weigh in at ARB board meeting



 CONTACT: Californians Against Hidden Taxes

    Anita Mangels, 714/499-6995



 SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1995--Citing 

negligible air quality benefits and enormous costs, state 

legislators joined with air quality experts, economists and tax 

payer advocates in calling for the repeal of California's electric 

vehicle (EV) mandate.



 Statements delivered on behalf of the lawmakers to members of 

the Air Resources Board (ARB) left no doubt that there is strong 

opposition to the mandate among elected officials.



 Assemblyman Mickey Conroy, vice chairman of the Assembly 

Utilities and Commerce Committee, questioned the wisdom of enforcing 

a mandate that will do nothing to clean up the air:



 "Even the most favorable estimates show that the electric car 

mandate will result in less than one percent of the (emissions) 

reductions required by the state's clean air plan," Conroy said.



 "This mandate puts the environmental cart before the 

technological horse," he concluded.



 And Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico), chair of the Assembly 

Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, predicted dire 

economic consequences if the mandate remains intact: "I don't think 

there has been any ill-advised public policy that poses more 

potential danger to the economy of California than the EV mandate.



 "This mandate, if implemented, would cost California citizens 

billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of jobs and appreciable 

increases in utility rates," Richter declared, "And it would 

retrogressively affect air quality."



 Higher costs for electric vehicles would cause people to keep 

their older, higher polluting cars longer, Richter maintained, thus 

actually increasing air pollution.



 Reinforcing the message that mandated EVs will not improve air 

quality, Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) urged the board to rescind the 

EV mandate saying, "Forcing a product on the market prematurely will 

not solve our air quality problems."



 And expressing concern over the mandate's impact on the 

California economy, Assembly Budget Committee member Bill Morrow 

(R-San Clemente) had this to say:



 "California is still trying to climb back from a lingering 

recession that has seen...businesses leave our state in droves for 

friendlier economic climates. We simply cannot afford one more 

burdensome regulation that will cost the public billions of dollars 

while realizing virtually no benefits."



 Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena) summed up his colleagues'

position:



 "The Air Resources Board should immediately repeal the electric 

car mandate, and in the future, should scrupulously avoid similar 

measures which artificially manipulate markets and interfere with 

the private sector economy," Hoge stated. 



 Former Air Board executive officer Thomas Austin, who has called 

potential air quality benefits of the EV mandate "too small to 

measure," described to his former employers the EV mandate's 

conservatively estimated $20 billion cost to the public. Austin is 

now a senior partner in Sierra Research, an environmental consulting 

firm that counts the Air Board and the California Environmental 

Protection Agency among its clients.



 Among others appearing before the board to plead for repeal of 

the mandate were Lewis K. Uhler, president of the National Tax 

Limitation Committee; Anita Mangels, executive director of 

Californians Against Hidden Taxes; chemical engineer Bill Ward of 

Drivers for Highway Safety; and public policy analyst and economist 

Steve Moss of M. Cubed.



 Other legislators expected to submit statements to the Air Board 

included assemblymen Steve Baldwin (R-Lemon Grove), Jim Morrissey 

(R-Santa Ana), Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) and Bruce Thompson 

(R-Temecula), as well as Sen. Dick Monteith (R-Modesto).



 The Air Resources Board will soon decide the fate of the 

electric car mandate, which would require 2% of new cars offered for 

sale in California by major automakers to be electric vehicles 

starting in 1998. That quota increases to 10% just five years 

later.