Admits Tech and Infrastructure Aren’t Ready – Watts Up With That?

From Legal Insurrection

Another state discovers California-style mandates are not workable given the current technologies and infrastructure.

Posted by Leslie Eastman

In the summer of 2024, I reported that the state of Connecticut opted to forgo adopting California-style electric vehicle (EV) mandates.  Additionally, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin put the brakes on his state’s EV mandate at the end of the year.

Just last month, Maryland’s governor delayed its sad attempt to be East Coast California via a similar mandate.

Now Vermont Governor Phil Scott issued an executive order halting the enforcement of the state’s electric vehicle (EV) sales mandate, which had required that 35% of all vehicles delivered to Vermont dealerships be zero-emission starting with the 2026 model year.

This pause affects passenger cars and medium—to heavy-duty trucks and continues the trend of progressive states following California into a progressive blackhole of senseless energy policies.

Vermont is one of 11 states including New York, Maryland and Massachusetts that have adopted California’s zero-emission vehicle rules, which seek to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035. California’s rules require 35% of light-duty vehicles in the 2026 model year to be zero-emission models.

Scott cited warnings from automakers that they could limit supply of gas-powered vehicles to dealers in the state because of the EV rules.

“It’s clear we don’t have anywhere near enough charging infrastructure and insufficient technological advances in heavy-duty vehicles to meet current goals,” said Scott.

It’s important to note that according to an analysis by Here Technologies and SBD Automotive, Vermont has one of the more favorable EV charging networks in the country, with a +1.3 charger-to-electric-vehicle ratio. That means if the mandate can’t work there, it won’t be working anywhere…and that includes California.

Local automobile dealers, who have to address the realities of customer preferences, are delighted with this news.

Vermont’s auto dealers, meanwhile, welcomed news of the executive order. The California rule doesn’t obligate local dealers to sell a certain percentage of electric vehicles, rather it requires car and truck manufacturers to, starting in model year 2026, ensure that 35% of vehicles shipped to those dealers be zero emissions.

Matt Cota, with the Vermont Vehicle and Automotive Distributors Association, said that demand for those EVs doesn’t yet exist in Vermont (about 14% of new cars registered in Vermont last year were zero emission).

Cota said manufacturers would likely comply with the mandate by sending fewer total vehicles to Vermont dealers. And he said dealers in New Hampshire, which has not adopted the California rule, will be well-positioned to satisfy demand for gas-powered vehicles that are no longer delivered to Vermont.

“In a way, if you don’t create the demand of electric vehicles, all you’re doing with this regulation — you’re not putting more electric vehicles on the road, you’re harming the local businesses that sell vehicles of all types,” Cota said.

It must be noted that the rollback of a federal waiver of the special California rules is poised to occur, which means these governors are simply getting ahead of the likely regulatory changes related to energy policies.

The governor’s decision is a setback for California, whose 2022 Advanced Clean Cars law makes it possible for states to mandate EVs. The 1970 Clean Air Act allows California to obtain a federal waiver to issue vehicle emissions regulations that are stricter than federal emissions standards and for other states like Vermont to adopt those regulations.

In December, the Biden administration issued a waiver green-lighting California’s Advanced Clean Cars rules, which a dozen states have adopted.

The House recently passed a bill to revoke that waiver, but the Senate has yet to take it up. The Trump administration said in February that it would support revoking the waiver.

I predict other states who followed California’s lead are going to rethink their plans. Furthermore, given Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hot, new, centrist rebranding….I foresee him “delaying” the EV mandate for California on the way out the door.

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