The State of California is continuing its aggressive policies pushing consumers and companies to adopt electric vehicles by proposing to force shipping companies to use electric trucks at the state’s beleaguered port facilities.
Despite a supply-chain crisis that resulted in record backlogs at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports last year — partly contributing to New York overtaking them — the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is pressing on. [emphasis, links added]
The Wall Street Journal reports the state will impose an electric truck mandate, despite the lack of charging infrastructure and the space to build it, to create a market for electric trucks en route to a broader transition:
The California Air Resources Board is proposing phasing out older big rigs operating in the busy corridors shuttling shipping containers between ports, rail yards and warehouses and require that all new vehicles be powered by clean fuels starting in 2024.
From 2025, the state would bar trucks powered by internal combustion engines that have more than 800,000 miles on them from operating at ports and rail yards.
The goal is to push more than 30,000 heavily-polluting trucks to clean energy by 2035. Trucking industry officials say there is a big gap between the target and the charging infrastructure that barely exists today and would take years to build.
“Nobody is saying we don’t want to move to advanced technology,” said Matt Schrap, chief executive of the Harbor Trucking Association, an advocacy group that represents thousands of the state’s port truckers. Truckers can’t meet the deadline, he said, “because there’s no charging.”
The year 2035 is familiar because that is also the deadline by which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and CARB have declared that the state will no longer allow the sale of most gas-powered passenger vehicles, requiring drivers to purchase electric vehicles [or buy a traditional car out of state].
The state’s power grid currently lacks the capacity for a full shift to an electric fleet, so regulators are scrambling to plan the charging infrastructure and electricity transmission facilities required.
Earlier this year, state authorities advised the owners of electric vehicles not to charge them in the afternoon and evening hours during a heat wave, when solar panels would provide less power, creating a shortage.
California’s switch from fossil fuels to “renewable” energy sources has a negligible effect on global climate, partly because the state’s carbon savings are erased by rising fossil fuel use in China and developing countries.
Read more at Breitbart
What baffles me is the complete DISCONNECT from reality & total lack of knowledge of our domestic energy system. I have observed this illogical & irrational approach by activists for a number of years. There seems to be a misguided notion that transitioning your primary energy system, which fossil fuels provide over 80% worldwide, is just like adding an “app” to your phone. The technology is DECADES away to provide a cleaner alternative to REPLACE fossil fuels. Somehow, we have to have a sensible, well informed discussion (debate) started that focuses on energy imperatives (physics) rather than aspirations & “green dreams.” The time to start that intelligent discussion is NOT when your lights go out…
BTW. If you are engaging in the actual scientific method, then the burden of proof that we are in a “Climate Crisis” rests with the activists, NOT those that challenge the dogma. This whole thing is BACKWARDS. Even IF you could demonstrate that manmade sources of CO2 are dangerously warming the planet, so WHAT THEN? Notice how the environmental NGO’s, progressive politicians & their media enablers NEVER address one fundamental question: “What clean, scalable, cost effective & sustainable alternative do YOU suggest to REPLACE 80% of our domestic primary energy.” Slogans like “100% renewables by X Date” have NO BASIS in reality. Those that dare question the mantra are not “deniers,” they are REALISTS…
Newsom is a Idiot just like Biden runs on Politics not Science
Reelect a idiot watch your food bills and utility bills rise blame yourself California Liberals for reelecting this idiot Newsom