For Immediate Release: June 5, 2024
Contacts: Office of the Governor: Christian Martinez, Christian.Martinez@governor.virginia.gov
Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares: Virginia Will Exit California Electric Vehicle Mandate at End of Year
RICHMOND, VA – Governor Youngkin today announced the end of the California electric vehicle mandate in Virginia, effective at the end of 2024 when California’s current regulations expire. An official opinion from Attorney General Jason Miyares in response to a request by the Governor and Senate Republican Leader Ryan McDougle confirms that Virginia is not required to comply with expansive new mandates adopted by the unelected California Air Resources Board (CARB) set to take effect January 1, 2025.
“Once again, Virginia is declaring independence – this time from a misguided electric vehicle mandate imposed by unelected leaders nearly 3,000 miles away from the Commonwealth,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “The idea that government should tell people what kind of car they can or can’t purchase is fundamentally wrong. Virginians deserve the freedom to choose which vehicles best fit the needs of their families and businesses. The law is clear, and I am proud to announce Virginians will no longer be forced to live under this out-of-touch policy.”
“Today, I’ve issued an official Attorney General Opinion that confirms that Virginians are no longer legally bound to follow the emission standards of California,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “EV mandates like California’s are unworkable and out of touch with reality, and thankfully the law does not bind us to their regulations. California does not control which cars Virginians buy and any thoughts that automobile manufacturers should face millions of dollars in civil penalties rather than allowing our citizens to choose their own vehicles is completely absurd.”
In 2021, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation authorizing Virginia’s Air Board to adopt California’s “Advanced Clean Cars I” regulation pursuant to Section 177 of the federal Clean Air Act. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently adopted “Advanced Clean Cars II,” set to take effect January 1, 2025, which would require 100% of new cars sold in Model Year 2035 to be electric vehicles. An opinion from Attorney General Jason Miyares confirms the law, as written, does not require Virginia to follow ACC II. Therefore, the Commonwealth will follow federal emissions standards on January 1, 2025.
“Throughout CARB’s ‘Advanced Clean Cars II’ regulation are references to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive orders and the unique environmental circumstances facing California. Virginia’s laws should not be determined by California politicians. Instead, our laws should be decided by Virginians who are elected to serve Virginia and address issues that face our Commonwealth, not a state nearly 3,000 miles away,” said Senator Ryan McDougle, who co-patroned legislation to repeal CARB’s mandate during this year’s legislative session along with Senator Richard Stuart, Senator John McGuire, Delegate Lee Ware, Delegate Tony Wilt, and Delegate Buddy Fowler.
Under Advanced Clean Cars II, beginning in Model Year 2026, 35% of the new cars sold would have been required to be electric vehicles, moving up to 100% in 2035. If an auto manufacturer sells a standard automobile out of compliance with California’s mandate, they may be required to pay a fine upwards of $20,000 per vehicle sold. Given that EVs only amounted to 9% of vehicles sold in Virginia in 2023, application of the misguided mandates could have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. Virginia auto consumers and dealers could be forced to bear these costs. Not only would this leave auto dealers with less money to pay staff, offer raises, and grow their businesses, it could force many small auto dealers to permanently close their doors.
The Attorney General’s opinion can be found here.
A formal memo from Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Travis Voyles to regulated entities and the Department of Environmental Quality can be found here.
# # #
Source: Governor Glenn Youngkin | Governor.Virginia.gov
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Elections matter. Rationality returns to Virginia, at least regarding EV mandates.
It’ll never happen in Wokeachusetts, or NY, or CT, or VT. They are experiencing extreme climate cultism!
CT already pulled out of this several months ago.
Amazing, since CT usually slavishly follows whatever Wokeachusetts does regarding the “climate emergency”. Maybe some of their wisdom will rub off on the idiot politicians here.
Connecticut and Massachusetts have a history of clashing over vehicles and vehicle laws.
I lived outside of Boston, pronounced Baastan by the Bostonians, during the 1970s when having Massachusetts license plates would get you tickets in CT.
I was wondering when this was going to happen. I could not fathom how it was legal for one state to be linked to any and all regulations in another state without re-authorization, but then again, I am not a lawyer.
It looks to me they had this in the drawer waiting for California to up the ante, as it always does. Then, WHAM!, like hitting a bug with a magazine.
Unfortunately, Youngkin’s executives are the only branch not controlled by the Democrats and he cannot succeed himself. So the whole thing is up for grabs in the next state election, fingers crossed.
Meanwhile. people are making a fortune cutting off EV Fast Charging station charging cords and selling for scrap copper price.
One step in the right direction.
And another domino is wobbling badly, Financial Times today:
Global investors are turning their backs on sustainably focused stock funds, as poor performance, a series of scandals and attacks from US Republicans hit enthusiasm for a much-hyped sector that has pulled in trillions of dollars of assets.
Clients have withdrawn a net $40bn from environmental, social and governance (ESG) equity funds so far this year, according to research from Barclays, the first year that flows have trended negative. Redemptions, which include a record monthly net outflow of about $14bn in April, have been widespread across all main regions.
The outflows mark a significant reversal for a sector that investors have flocked to in recent years, attracted by the claim that such funds could help change the world for the better while also making as much — or even more — money as traditional stock portfolios.
Pierre-Yves Gauthier, head of strategy and co-founder at AlphaValue, a Paris-based independent research company, compared the sector to the tech bubble that burst in 2000. “ESG was a dotcom sort of hype 20 years later and now it has passed,” he said.
Meanwhile NuScale, SMR has tripled in value from January 5 – June 5, 2024.
It’s now an AI play – see below
The market is reacting to predictions that Trump will stop the climate alarmism nonsense that Biden and his bureaucrats have been foisting on us.
Possibly, but more likely investors in these funds are realising that they are missing out on the current bull run, with AI related stocks leading the charge. They are switching to funds that contain the likes of Nividia, up 300% this year.
CARB is notorious for extreme measures. Pollution is taken in a religious sense, as in “unclean” or “not Halal”, rather than part of a cost-benefit calculation.
CO2 and fossil fuels have the cooties!
No more BBQ’s coming before the California State CARB soon.
This is a big domino — I wonder what the next one will be.
A post (Eric Peters Auto views: June 2, Another Hurdle) has compared EVs to devices, such as a cell phone, lap top, or gaming console. A 3-year old one has no intrinsic value, so becomes scrap. Sales rep to EV owner –“Your car is scrap. We’ll sell you a new one, but we don’t want the old one. Well, for $500 we’ll get rid of it for you.”
Cell-phones-waste-1280×720.webp (1280×720) (gnnhd.tv)
The day I can drive into a marked bay, have a robot drop my discharged battery pack out, lift in a freshly charged one, in under 5 minutes, that is the day my range-anxiety goes away, my car retains some value, and I at least consider an EV. (They really are fun; I get why some of my friends love driving their EV.)
Hertz might use the same requirement before buying again.
It’s been tried:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_%28company%29
It seemed to work too, so the technology might be feasible, but $850,000,000 for 1400 cars seems a bit steep!
The day I can drive into a marked bay,
That’s if the batteries don’t spontaneously combust before you get there or while they’re being changed.
Hopefully the bays are heated during winter (consider the opening of the bay doors).
Assuming in winter you can even get to the bay. Battery capacity drops substantially in cold, some 50% or more. Pure chemistry.
Not practical on multiple levels, so it’s not going to happen. The batteries are all different sizes and shapes and “stocking” the right ones for every EV that comes calling would require a massive warehouse of batteries at every “EV gas station.”
Can you remember when the filler pipe for petrol engines were all different sizes?
They standardised and the market didn’t even notice.
It can happen, it’s just a matter of the car companies changing their vehicles to suit a modular battery. The problem is where to place it. The best place is down low, under the floor pan, which is probably the worst place for a quick replacement.
Now if the battery was on a trailer……
Imagine the size of the battery replacement building and the power required to recharge their batteries ready for re-use.
If you use a petrol station’s throughput of vehicles as a model for the number of ‘refills’ required then the numbers for batteries plus power and time to recharge become enormous and unworkable.
Then multiply by the number of petrol stations currently in existence.
More unicorn farts than are readily available
All legislation is not bad. It used to be that all cell phone companies used a proprietary plug so they could sell heavily overpriced charges, chargers that were all delivering the same electricity. It was due to legislation in Europe, I believe, that cell phones, and other small rechargeable battery devices, now use standard USB plugs (except maybe Apple?), eliminating the high prices and, most likely, hundreds of millions of abandoned charges as people bought new phones with new chargers.
The point is that, while in the case of automobiles, a standard battery might not be the best thing for the car designers or for longer driving range, there could be standard sized, easily exchanged batteries that would make a quick “fill up” possible in most cases. These would come with certain new problems but they might work in most cases.
The USB thing hasn’t really worked that well. We’ve had USB, micro USB, USB 2 and USB 3, and now USB C. I have amassed a collection of interconnection cords with different ends. Modern tablets and phones can accept a much faster charge rate too. Then there are laptop chargers for USB C which would probably blow a phone with their wattage. The laptop would eat a trickle charger for a bite before breakfast.
Your point nits on the 5 minutes expectation as well as the other points you make about stocking.
Picture the scene: You have had your sparkly new EV for three days, and it’s time to swap the battery. Out goes your brand new pristine battery, to be replaced by one of unknown provenance, maybe is quite old and has had far too many fast charges, so the range is depleted to about 50% of the one you traded in, this is it’s last viable charge before being retired. “Sorry sir, you can’t have your original battery back, that’s not how this works”..
Right-Handed Shark: “Sorry sir, you can’t have your original battery back, that’s not how this works”..
In a system where EV cars use a standard exchangeable battery packs, the car might be sold without a battery pack and you pay a fee every time the pack is exchanged, plus you pay a time-based fee while the pack is installed in your EV.
The two fees are large enough to cover the supplier’s capital and operating costs for supplying X numbers of packs to Y numbers of EV owners when, where, and for how long those owners need them.
Could such a system work in practice? I don’t know. But I will never own an EV and I don’t particularly have any sympathy for those who do own one and who experience serious issues in the course of their EV ownership experience.
I’d be more concerned about where the battery was before I hired it. What if it had been driven roughly, banged around, shaken AND stirred.
I’m sure a reputable charging station will examine every battery for damage and not offer up for rehire any non-safe packs. However, the less than ideal shop might not care.
Who pays for the house fire that starts in the garage during the next week?
That process might provide the government with a sure fire way to tax EV travel.
Not even a clue as to your new EV’s range if the batteries you are forced to use are ‘second’ hand.
The waste would be stupendous. No one would accept used modular batteries with 50% of their original range so they would have to be junked/refurbished when their range reached 50% of that when new. More likely 70% as no one would be happy with a 150 mile range.
ICE cars were a step forward from the original BEV’s. We have refined the ICE until we can get 400 miles minimum from even the most modest cars under almost any conditions. They have evolved to meet our needs, we didn’t evolve to suit their needs.
Now we are taking a step backwards with uncertain range from vehicles that can’t tow, don’t like cold/hot weather, are susceptible to even minor damage, are compromised by charging times, and if you don’t treat them with kid gloves they catch fire and are impossible to extinguish. And when you come to sell it in ten years the battery will have deteriorated to 70% or even 50% of it’s original range at which point no one will buy it.
We could probably have lived with one major compromise but there are just too many sacrifices we have to make to live with EV’s.
Oops. Hit the nail squarely on the head, you did.
It was first done in 1897;
The London Electrical Cab Company ran 75 Bersey cabs in central London,
Battery change took 2–3 minutes.
Electric cabs compared …
1897 ‘Bersey Taxi’
High headroom;
Average speed in London = 9mph;
Rear wheel drive;
Weight = 2 ton;
Range = 35 miles;
So what’s changed in 120yrs ?
More comfort for driver, heating, & twice the range.
Swapping the battery took 2-3 mins.
2017 LEVC TX black cab.
High headroom;
Average speed in London = 9mph;
Rear wheel drive;
Weight = 2.2 ton;
Range = 70 miles (EV mode);
Bringing an empty battery to 80 percent takes between 20 minutes and three hours – depending on the charging current.
So what’s changed in 120yrs ?
More comfort for driver, heating, & twice the range,
But longer to refuel.
Was it the same admin that signed the deal in 2020 (a high percentage of readers of WUWT won’t know details of state politics).
No, that was done under the former democrat governor and black-faced racist, Ralph Northam.
It was never established whether Northam was wearing blackface or a KKK uniform in that yearbook picture.
No, but it was absolutely established that it was one or the other. Northam’s racism is multiple choice! 🙂
Both, innit?
If you are a liberal, you’re allowed to be a racist. Just ask Justin Trudeau.
Or as he’s sometimes referred to,Justin Castreau.
Leftists believe that minorities are incapable of running their own lives, and must be led about by the hand by white liberals.
For those unfamiliar with the reference to the former democrat governor and black face, here’s a link:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/reports-virginia-governor-s-yearbook-page-had-photo-men-blackface-n966066
We used to burn a cork and rub it on our faces while wearing a broken top hat to mimic looking like a hobo from a sooty train yard for Halloween.
No one ever suggested to us that we were mimicking Al Jolson.
Not even your “Mammy”?
Social standards were much more lax in 1984 and people had a sense of humor.
Applying today’s norms to people and events 40 years ago or 160 years ago is not doing justice. One must study the historical context and evaluate based on the norms in place at the time.
If the norms were wrong, so be it, criticize the norms. If people were complying to the norms of their times, are they bad people just because society had not matured?
Since when has any socialist ever applied that standard to a conservative?
Does Columbus deserve to be banished from history because he was a man of times and does not meet today’s standards?
The same question goes for the US founding fathers. Many leftists are demanding that statues of all of them be torn down.
This is good news. Thanks for forwarding this press release, Anthony.
Has anyone opened a betting book on which State will be next?
An rush of more States would be a welcomed sign of a drift back to legislative sanity and expression of the wishes of the people.
Well done, Virginia. Geoff S
I’m from Virginia and I absolutely agree with and share your sentiments. Unfortunately, the question is, is this a slow drift back to sanity or just a brief excursion from a long-term trend?
Elections have consequences.
… and:
Every country (state) gets the government it deserves.
Remember what stalin said. It’s not the votes that count, it’s who counts the votes
(or something like that).
I prefer the quote from his henchman, Lavrentiy Beria
Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.
I think they both work together synergistically.
Remember what K. Marx said. Control the language, control the ideas. Both are at play today.
By 51% of those who voted. The other part of reality is that elections very often offer no significant alternative to what will happen under any available candidate. The major political party choice, after a lot of screaming about the value of putting leg irons on every non-elite citizen, is between wearing it on the right or left leg.
That is THE very good reason to send $$$ support to the (carefully vetted) Individual… NOT the Party.
Clean Car States: As of publication, 17 states have adopted the CARB vehicle standards: New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, Virginia, and New Mexico.
My money’s on Nevada. Especially since Newsom has been crapping on NV Gov Lombardo. Most of the others will follow CA over the cliff.
The lemming phenomenon.
Here’s hoping more to follow.
Virginia declines to follow CARB to EV disaster. It is a start.
But in Virginia the governor only gets one term. It’s possible that disaster has not been averted, only delayed (I apologize if my pessimism and cynicism of the current state of affairs is showing through).
Your pessimism and cynicism is well earned. Keep it up.
Good news, one state returning to sane policy, 49 to go.
It is unconstitutional for any state to enter into any agreement or compact with other states, without the consent of Congress.
End of subject.
It is unconstitutional for any state…
“Constitutional” doesn’t seem to matter anymore
Mr. Layman here.
Why not just rescind the law that tied Virginia to California’s insanity before the law expired?
(And why wouldn’t the interstate commerce clause come into play? How could one states regulations or laws or “executive orders” apply to another state’s by “default”?)
Virginia currently has a republican governor (and Lt. Gov and AG) but unfortunately has a democrat controlled legislature. Ain’t nuffin’ racist Northam passed that is going to get rescinded.
The article stated that the compact was expiring at the end of this year. The issue was that the current governor isn’t going to support renewing it.
Virginia adopted the CARB standards by passing a law.
California has no legal leverage over Virginia just because Virginia adopts California air standards.
Virginia rescinding the law would be enough. I don’t know why they need an Attorney General’s opinion.
tom, read my comment just above. The Virginia legislature (both chambers) is currently controlled by the democrats. You will never get them to rescind a Northam-era law. Their only option currently is to wait it out.
I see what you mean now.
It’s becoming more evident that enthusiasm for EVs is falling fast in a number of jurisdictions. More people are taking stands against EV mandates by Britain, Germany and now Virginia because people don’t like to be told how they have to spend their money. And when it has to be spent on something whose initial price is too high, whose reliability is too low, whose performance is unpredictable, and whose resale value has been dropping among other liabilities, people will give it a wide berth. This is the result when politicians, environmentalists, and academics decide what’s supposedly best for consumers without conducting proper surveys. So we should expect a lot of white elephants as leftovers from the initial EV mania.
Good for Virginia. California is a basket case. I fear the only way to bring California around is to erect a virtual wall around California. No fossil fuel products can cross the border into California, no power generated by fossil fuels or nuclear can cross the border into California, no fossil fuel trucks, cars trains, planes or boats can enter California. All federal dollars going to California will end. California will still be required to pay federal taxes. Military bases are exempt and the ports will continue to operate but no product can be delivered to California, it must be shipped directly to a different state. No immigration out of California while these rules are in effect.
Heaven may be an answer
If you’re lookin’ for Eden in the sky
But is sure ain’t California any more.
The arithmetic is simple. Add $20K to the price of an ICE and you get the price of an EV.
“n 2021, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation authorizing Virginia’s Air Board to adopt California’s “Advanced Clean Cars I” regulation pursuant to Section 177 of the federal Clean Air Act. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently adopted “Advanced Clean Cars II,” set to take effect January 1, 2025, which would require 100% of new cars sold in Model Year 2035 to be electric vehicles. An opinion from Attorney General Jason Miyares confirms the law, as written, does not require Virginia to follow ACC II. Therefore, the Commonwealth will follow federal emissions standards on January 1, 2025. “
What a sad contraption normal living is balanced on.
— Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares
Nice summary . . . and true!
Surprisingly, Connecticut pulled out of this EV debacle several months ago.
Heh heh heh.
A giant sloppy spit throwing raspberry at California and the climate delusional Gavins wherever they are located, from rationalists in Virginia!
Maybe we’ll get inks again that are truly indelible, including on plastics and metals.