Your recent article on the gradual phase out of gas vehicles noted that under Gov. Carney’s leadership, Delaware is moving toward adoption of the California Advanced Clean Car II regulatory standards. The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has held a series of public workshops and will hold hearings this spring.
Some of the opinions of those opposing CACCII at the first workshop were based on misconceptions. California isn’t dictating what Delaware should do, as one person testified. Delaware is voluntarily choosing to adopt the California plan to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases.
California has long had the freedom under the Clean Air Act to decide how best to control its unique and significant air pollution problems. The act also specifically allows other states to adopt California standards, meaning that two standards – the weaker federal and stronger California – have coexisted.
Currently 17 states including Delaware, or about 40% of the automobile market, have adopted California’s low-emission and greenhouse gas regulations. However, Delaware did not adopt the electric car, or zero-emission vehicle, standards. Now is the time for Delaware to move into the clean electric future by adopting CACCII.
It's important to note that the standards allow drivers of gas cars to continue to drive them as long as they want, but no new gasoline-powered cars would be sold in Delaware after 2035.
A representative of the Caesar Rodney Institute said at the workshop that Delaware does not need clean electric vehicles because we have made progress with pollution levels. However, the American Lung Association gave New Castle County an F for ozone (smog) in 2022. Sussex County’s ozone grade was an unimpressive C.
Tailpipe emissions continue to have us breathing a stew of nitrogen, volatile organic compounds and carcinogens such as benzene, formaldehyde and toluene. Electric cars will improve our air, our health and our hospitalizations for asthma and COPD.
The Caesar Rodney spokesman also said there is no point in adopting new regulations that may be struck down judicially. A number of states have indeed challenged the CACCII regulations on the grounds that California’s authority does not extend to greenhouse gases but only addresses air pollutants such as ozone and particulates.
However, led by Delaware’s Sen. Carper, Congress put this question to rest last August when it passed a revision to the Clean Air Act that specifically granted the Environmental Protection Agency and states the authority to tackle carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping emissions from power plants and automobiles. The new language makes a successful judicial challenge unlikely.
The car world is going electric. GM will stop manufacturing all gas-powered vehicles by 2035 and Audi, Volvo and Mini Cooper will soon be only electric. Attitudes toward climate change are shifting. EV technology and charging infrastructure are improving. And U.S. citizens are eager to be free of gas and oil marketed by dictators.
Meanwhile, my sturdy plug-in Prius gets 75 miles per gallon. Its replacement will be all-electric and emissions-free.
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