Zero emissions zerosense

California’s air regulators are a bunch of crazies. Their zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, for example, will clearly hurt air quality as well as raise the cost of living of the state’s lower income people.

Howard Gruensprecht of the RESOURCES FOR THE FUTURE thinktank estimates (RESOURCES Winter 2001 #142 p8) that the Calif Air Resources Board’s (CARB) mandate for 4% of personal vehicles sold in 2003 to be ZEV will result in higher car prices and substantially increased emissions. The higher cost of ZEVs will have to be spread over the 96% of regular new low emitting vehicles (NLEVs) sold. The $8k to $20k extra for ZEVs will reduce sales of NLEVs by 2 to 3%. The reduced population of NLEVs as compared to a no-ZEV-mandate situation will perpetuate the lives of 10 year+ high emitting vehicles (HEVs). The extra emissions of these will far outweight any gains from ZEVs versus NLEVs – by 3 to 15 times Gruensprecht calculates.

“Californians can look forward to paying $500m more and getting dirtier air into the bargain.” He aptly calls it a lose-lose”

proposition.

But then if you criticize what these people say they are liable to call you ‘anti-environment’ and ‘friends of polluters.’ It is idiot environmentalism that does the opposite of what its proponents claim for the environment, and also costs everyone lots of money.