More EV Mandate Pushback
It seems like every day there is another story about another big car manufacturer pulling back on their plans to go all out with EV production in the face of consumer demand not being as strong as they had hoped for. Car dealers and their trade groups are also getting more and more publicly vocal in pushing back against these mandates, both in New Jersey and now nationally--with nearly 4,000 dealers signing on to a letter to the Biden Administration asking them to slow down on the effort to try and force motorists into electric vehicles whether they want them or not.
The biggest news though came out of our neighbor to the northeast, Connecticut. Their Governor announced that he was withdrawing his proposed mandate to force his state to join the California Advanced Clean Cars II program, which aims to ban the sale of gas powered cars by 2035, with a phase-in starting in just three years. This came as a surprise to many, but it shows that there is bipartisan opposition to this dramatic plan. Connecticut has a unique aspect of their lawmaking procedure, where regulations issued by the Governor must be approved by a bipartisan committee of the legislature. Normally, party loyalty prevents much from being overturned, but it looks like this plan was so toxic that members of both parties were going to vote to repeal it, so the Governor withdrew it to save face.
Like New Jersey, Connecticut is a 'blue state', with a Democratic Governor and Democratic control of the Legislature, and has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election for the last thirty years. If the plan is failing there, that's a good sign for our efforts here. While NJ does not have a similar oversight committee, we do have a process in which a majority of the Legislature can repeal a regulation by the Governor, without needing his approval. With so many opposed to this mandate, we are working to get the Legislature to use this process to stop this regulation. It's clear that there is strong bipartisan support to do so, just this week Democratic Senator Paul Sarlo (Bergen) publicly stated that there was no way the mandate was going to work. With a clear majority in both legislative houses opposed to this rule, we just need to convince leadership to put the issue up for a vote, which they will only do if they hear it enough from their voters.
Even still, Gov. Murphy can't run for reelection, which means he leaves office January 2026. We are hopeful that the next governor, no matter which party they are, will either significantly delay or outright repeal this mandate.