Letters to the Editor: Biden’s EPA is slow-walking EV rules. That means California must get tougher
To the editor: The Times’ editorial board rightly identifies the gaps in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new auto pollution rule, as the agency delayed much of its emissions reductions to later years. California has led the nation on clean vehicles in the past, and now it must take the steering wheel again.
The California Air Resources Board will soon consider its own emissions standards for gas-powered cars. Those standards must be tougher and start sooner than the EPA rule.
Recent research shows that California is behind on its greenhouse gas reduction targets, and that the state will have to triple the rate of reductions in future years. Reducing auto emissions is the fastest way of getting there, because cleaner technology is cost-effective and currently sitting on the shelf.
California must crack down on gas-guzzlers by the end of this year and double down on equity programs so clean vehicles are accessible to all. The EPA has raised the bar, and California must aim even higher.
Scott Hochberg, Oakland
The writer is an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
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To the editor: I own an environmental consulting company and hope that people promoting electric vehicles stop ignoring two very significant issues.
One is tire wear due to the high weight of electric vehicles. By using tires much more rapidly than gasoline-powered vehicles of similar capacity, buyers of electric vehicles are responsible for increased particulate pollution.
That higher weight also means that electric vehicle owners are responsible for significantly increased road wear, and therefore for significantly increased pollution from road repair and replacement work.
Electric vehicles are far from being zero-emission devices. Pollution from manufacturing them is more of a well-known problem, but pollution from tire and road wear should also be considered.
Hybrids are far more practical and, with all factors considered, less polluting.
F. Stephen Masek, Mission Viejo
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To the editor: It is great that the EPA will require car manufacturers to increase sales of electric vehicles.
But what is the point of buying an EV when there are not enough EV charging stations, and many of those that do exist are broken?
Regina Pally, Santa Monica
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To the editor: Your print edition has a headline saying that the EPA “revs up switch to EVs” by requiring “car manufacturers to increase sales of electric vehicles.”
Funny — I thought EV sales increased only when consumers decided to buy them.
Jim Valentine, Woodland Hills
