GM, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler are actively fighting emission rules. I will be in the market to buy a car next month and will be actively avoiding these 3 brands
What's worse, emissions are not done holistically. They rate battery-powered car as effectively having zero emissions, which does not consider how you charge you car. There was a study earlier this year, that revealed a Tesla charged by a power plant using coal generated more emissions than a standard unleaded gasoline car.
I get the intent of these laws, but they are poorly done.
Good thing coal is declining in the US, and likely permanently so as renewables continue to become more cost effective.
There is no where in the US electrical grid where that statement is true. It's a strawman.
Also, How is it a straw man? Coal power plants still exist. While some governments are forcing them out, it exists. If it's true, it is a real concern we should take into consideration.
source of study: https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/business/technology/5...
Second- bullshit. Every commercially viable coal plant burns much hotter than any gasoline or diesel engine, and will have a much higher efficiency as a result. (Wikipedia "Carnot cycle") Line/conversion losses will not make up the difference.
Third-we're talking about California. We don't have any coal plants. So even if we pretended physics wasn't a thing, our relatively large supply of wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, and hydro production would fix it. We're trying to replace natural gas with "batteries" of some sort, but even at the worst case, natural gas plants produce very little smog, even though their CO2 production is unfortunate.
Fourth- (well, three point fivesth) smog from coal plants in states that we share a grid with is their problem- winds generally blow west to east, so that smog won't end up in our cities. If the states where that smog ends up wants to enact federal smog reduction standards I'll be at the table shoulder to shoulder with you.
Trump has done a lot of shit to piss me off. As a resident of the bowl that includes Los Angeles, this is probably the issue that makes me the angriest, even though its national significance is fairly small. We need air quality protections here. We can't survive otherwise, and solving this problem at the state level had worked out fairly well so far. I'd rate it of more importance to me than the housing crisis, (our fault, we're doing nothing to address it) or the wild fires. (partially our fault, we're talking steps to fix it on a global scale with the knowledge that it won't ever be enough by ourselves)
BTW, someone pointed out previously that there is more to the story than just fuel regulations that killed the Ranger and similar vehicles, so take the above with a grain of salt if needed.