Electric Vehicles

California

Talk of a Ban on Non-Electric Cars

What if California did away altogether with cars powered by fossil fuels? Gov. Jerry Brown is said to have considered the question. According to a report in Bloomberg, he asked a state regulator about a plan by China to phase out sales of fossil-fuel vehicles. “I’ve gotten messages from the ...
Blog

Beware Sacramento Offering You A “Good Deal” On Your Next Car

What are the legitimate functions of good government? James Madison said they are “to protect property of every sort.” “The rights of persons and the rights of property are the objects for the protection of which government was instituted,” he said in an 1829 address to the Virginia Convention. Some ...
Business & Economics

CAPITAL IDEAS: Different Thinking Needed to Meet Demand of California’s Clean Energy Future

Download the Brief California is destined for yet another energy crisis, which, like the drought that’s been scorching the state, will be man-made. Shortages can be avoided, but that will require lawmakers to think in ways that few have engaged in in recent decades. California’s electricity demand is expected to ...
California

EV mandates giving Californians déjà vu all over again

Twenty years ago, I had my first op-ed published in a major newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. The title was “Pull the Plug on the Electric Car Mandate.” In that column, I pointed out that battery-powered (non-hybrid) electric vehicles were not ready for wide-scale adoption for a variety of reasons, ...
Business & Economics

Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
Commentary

Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile

San Francisco—Many policies aiming to “green” the American car culture may do just the opposite, according to a new study from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free market think tank. Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile, by Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., PRI ...
Agriculture

State’s silly laws, sillier candidates

SACRAMENTO – Every legislator could have skipped out of the country for the entire legislative session, and it would not have mattered one iota to anyone outside of their staff members. That’s not cynicism, so much as a fair and balanced assessment of the last legislative session. I’m reminded of ...
Electric Vehicles

New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts

Vol.4 No.9 September 21, 2010 New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation jointly announced that they are considering an upgrade of the energy and environmental ...
Commentary

Air Quality Board’s Plan for Car Windows Unrealistic

The California Air Resources Board has proposed a new mandate to require car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols describes as “a common-sense and cost-effective measure that will help cool the cars we drive and fight global warning.” CARB claims that reflective windows will reduce ...
Business & Economics

Santa Is a Hoosier

For Barack Claus, if it’s Wednesday, this must be Indiana. The state’s recreational-vehicle industry is hurting badly — the local unemployment rate is around 17 percent — and his empathy knows no bounds, particularly since the land of the Hoosiers is a swing state. But what sort of gifts should ...
California

Talk of a Ban on Non-Electric Cars

What if California did away altogether with cars powered by fossil fuels? Gov. Jerry Brown is said to have considered the question. According to a report in Bloomberg, he asked a state regulator about a plan by China to phase out sales of fossil-fuel vehicles. “I’ve gotten messages from the ...
Blog

Beware Sacramento Offering You A “Good Deal” On Your Next Car

What are the legitimate functions of good government? James Madison said they are “to protect property of every sort.” “The rights of persons and the rights of property are the objects for the protection of which government was instituted,” he said in an 1829 address to the Virginia Convention. Some ...
Business & Economics

CAPITAL IDEAS: Different Thinking Needed to Meet Demand of California’s Clean Energy Future

Download the Brief California is destined for yet another energy crisis, which, like the drought that’s been scorching the state, will be man-made. Shortages can be avoided, but that will require lawmakers to think in ways that few have engaged in in recent decades. California’s electricity demand is expected to ...
California

EV mandates giving Californians déjà vu all over again

Twenty years ago, I had my first op-ed published in a major newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. The title was “Pull the Plug on the Electric Car Mandate.” In that column, I pointed out that battery-powered (non-hybrid) electric vehicles were not ready for wide-scale adoption for a variety of reasons, ...
Business & Economics

Deep Reform, Not Window Dressing, for a Cooler, Cleaner California

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) wants car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which regulators believe will reduce energy use and fight global warming. Though possibly well intentioned this plan amounts only to window dressing. Legislators should pursue deeper environmental reforms with more benefits and fewer disadvantages. CARB believes ...
Commentary

Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile

San Francisco—Many policies aiming to “green” the American car culture may do just the opposite, according to a new study from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free market think tank. Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile, by Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., PRI ...
Agriculture

State’s silly laws, sillier candidates

SACRAMENTO – Every legislator could have skipped out of the country for the entire legislative session, and it would not have mattered one iota to anyone outside of their staff members. That’s not cynicism, so much as a fair and balanced assessment of the last legislative session. I’m reminded of ...
Electric Vehicles

New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts

Vol.4 No.9 September 21, 2010 New EPA Car Labels Should Stick to Facts By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation jointly announced that they are considering an upgrade of the energy and environmental ...
Commentary

Air Quality Board’s Plan for Car Windows Unrealistic

The California Air Resources Board has proposed a new mandate to require car companies to install metallic reflective windows, which CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols describes as “a common-sense and cost-effective measure that will help cool the cars we drive and fight global warning.” CARB claims that reflective windows will reduce ...
Business & Economics

Santa Is a Hoosier

For Barack Claus, if it’s Wednesday, this must be Indiana. The state’s recreational-vehicle industry is hurting badly — the local unemployment rate is around 17 percent — and his empathy knows no bounds, particularly since the land of the Hoosiers is a swing state. But what sort of gifts should ...
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