Washington enacts plan to ban non-electric cars by 2030



Washington State Democrats have enacted a plan that would aim to ban most non-electric vehicles in the state by 2030.

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a bill last week that sets a target for all vehicles of the model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in the state to be electric.

"On or before December 31, 2023, the interagency electric vehicle coordinating council ... shall complete a scoping plan for achieving the 2030 target," the new law says.

The bill was passed as part of a $16.9 billion "Move Ahead Washington" package signed by Inslee on Friday. The governor said this legislation will combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Transportation is our state’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. There is no way to talk about climate change without talking about transportation," Inslee said in a statement. "This package will move us away from the transportation system our grandparents imagined and towards the transportation system our grandchildren dream of."

Democrats have frequently criticized transportation as one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there's been a 22.9% increase in fossil fuel emissions from transportation between 1990 and 2019, the largest increase of any economic sector.

The sweeping legislation includes funding for several infrastructure projects designed to facilitate a larger transition to electric vehicles, including building thousands of new electric vehicle charging stations. The transportation package will also fund four new hybrid-electric ferries, 25 transit electrification projects, and free fares for riders 18 and younger on public transportation systems, the governor said.

The law was endorsed by environmental groups that seek to end the use of fossil fuels.

"The war in Ukraine and the burden of high gas prices on families demonstrate the importance of ending our dependence on gasoline and preparing for an all-electric transportation future," Matthew Metz, co-executive director of Coltura, a nonprofit that advocates for phasing out the use of gasoline, said. "By targeting 2030 as an end date for the sales of gasoline cars in Washington, Clean Cars 2030 gives confidence to consumers, automakers, utilities, investors, and others that now is the time to go all-in on an all-EV future."

Coltura worked with Washington Democrats to get the bill passed. The lawmakers who supported the bill made it clear that while it only establishes a target for all-electric vehicles by 2030, the plan is to eventually get rid of any vehicle that uses gasoline in Washington.

"Clean Cars 2030 outlines a clear path forward for the future of the electric vehicle transition in our state," state Sen. Marko Liias said. "This part of our Move Ahead Washington plan will create a timeline with the data, tools, and guidelines that every sector from governments to businesses can plan for with confidence."

Chip Roy to Biden: You want to kill Texas' energy jobs? 'Come and take it'



Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Friday delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor slamming Democrats and the Biden administration for waging war by executive fiat on the oil and natural gas industries.

Among the flurry of executive actions President Joe Biden has taken in the weeks since he took office, Biden signed several orders on climate change, directing the secretary of the interior to pause granting new permits for oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters. Biden also canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline project on his first day as president, a move that eliminated an estimated tens of thousands of jobs related to the completion of the pipeline.

In his remarks, Roy accused Democrats of attacking the natural resources that are "the very great strength that the United States of America has to set us apart from the rest of the world to be independent."

Noting that CO2 levels in the U.S. have decreased in recent years and as of 2018 were at levels not seen since the mid-1990s, Roy argued that new technology like fracking and natural gas, which Democrats oppose, is responsible for lowering emissions, which Democrats claim to support.

"We have vastly exceeded what my leftist friends on the other side of the aisle want to follow, the social welfare state of Europeans down the road of fancy gatherings in Davos," Roy said. "They fly on their expensive jets to go preach to the world about global warming. Spare me your preaching as you're riding around in these jets, spewing out CO2, when we, through innovation in the great state of Texas and in our country, are creating clean-burning natural gas and are creating jobs powering the world."

Roy slammed the Biden administration, accusing the president's policies of "want[ing] to come in and destroy jobs, destroy our leadership in the world, turn us over to Russia and Iran, and oh by the way, empower China to roll right over us while they spew out whatever they want to spew out because darn if they're going to actually do anything like agree to whatever is in the Paris agreement."

"It is an absolute joke, it's a laughingstock what the Democratic Party is doing saying they're standing up for the little guy in this country, when you're going to drive up the price of energy, increase CO2, empower China, empower Iran, empower Russia, and harm jobs," Roy roared.

"You're going to kill hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country even as we're coming out of the negative effect of the pandemic."

He ended his remarks with a declaration to his Democratic colleagues: "You roll in here thinking that we're going to just fundamentally alter our entire economy through executive order?

"We're gonna say no. We're gonna say come and take it."

Watch:

WATCH: Rep. Roy's floor speech on the Biden administration's attacks on American oil and gas:"You roll in here th… https://t.co/eeqkgMpgDg
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@Rep. Chip Roy Press Office)1612545028.0