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.