There is still a great deal of reluctance to accept climate change amongst republicans (this is odd in a country with one of the highest education levels in the world). There is also a certain amount of those who have publicly accepted it, saying humans cannot do anything about it anyway (so why should we try).What is worse, is that a number of them must recognize that climate change is a threat to their state and the people who live there, but are campaigning against it because of the narrow interests of a car company which is based in their state. This video outlines it well
Half of the American states are trying to slow the advance of electric cars. These are all republican states – so called conservatives. The suit was filed by attourney generals from Kentucky and west Virginia. So how many people do these half of states represent? 89.75 million – this sounds a lot, until you realize that the USA population is currently 333.3 million, which means that these 25 states represent just short of 27% of the population of the country (it should be noted that these 25 states get 50% of the senate seats – not particularly fair).
So why are they against this move? Why are they against cleaning up the air in the USA?
The white house wanted a figure of 56% but reduced it after pressure. The EPA rules aim to cut fleetwide tailpipe emissions for cars and light trucks by nearly 50% (after pressure from states) over 2026 levels in 2032, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.2 billion tons through 2055. Now, the road emissions make up 29% of USA carbon emissions on their own – however, given their aim to reduce these emissions over time, it does not require anyone to replace their car now, merely to buy an electric one next time (and for the manufacturers to only sell them (most manufacturers have no electric cars to sell).
Russell Coleman the attourney general for Kentucky said it would “increase the price of cars, put pressure on local jobs and harm the countries economy”. I do wonder what Russell thinks will happen to Kentucky if he gets his wish? what will happen to any factories in his state? They will make a vehicle which in 10 years no one will want to buy, and the factory will go out of business, along with all internal combustion engine car factories in the USA. This will destroy all of the local jobs from these factories, and the price of vehicles will likely go up, as all will need importing. Of course, if Telsa grows at half the speed that is predicted, it will be able to sell 10 million vehicles a year (if it succeeds, it is aiming at 20 million a year), and moves like this will help, as they will not have to compete with factories in Kentucky. Does this governor think that people like paying thousands of dollars for petrol each year? One of his reasons is cost, but it is cheaper, over the life of the car, to drive electric, so who is he helping?
Without rules to save the combustion engine car in the USA, and to ban electric cars, the combustion engine car is dead. Perhaps not yet, but in 20 years it is likely to be a far rarer sight. As models like the Tesla model 2, along with the VW id1 and the electric ford, all aiming at the $25,000 pounds or less, they will largely take out the legs from new combustion engine cars (particularly if the exchange rate was fair to the UK, at times giving a starting price of £16,000). At the moment, even a fill-up every other week costs 1750 a year, taking 1750 time 7 off the cost of a car, shows how good value the car is.
The problem is that should we want to actually halt climate change, we need action now.