OPINION:
A few weeks ago, I had the distinct privilege of delivering the keynote address at the Reagan Ranch Roundtable at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California. My speech was entitled “Who Is Winning in the Competition Between the States? People Aren’t Trees.” In it, I cited the characteristics of states with dynamic, prospering economies and those that stagnate and lose population. The underlying, very basic premise that the growing states understand and the poorly performing ones don’t is that, unlike trees, people and businesses can and do move to places that afford better opportunities.
The movement of free people in recent years from high-cost states to states where they can keep more of their earnings tracks with Chief Executive Magazine’s unbiased, gold-standard annual Ranking of the Best & Worst States for Business. (Consistently Top 3: Texas, Florida and Tennessee. Consistently Worst 3: California, New York and Illinois.) Among policies that affect the costs of living, business and housing, as well as taxes, regulations, availability of a skilled workforce and right-to-work laws, I emphasized the effect of state energy policies that can unnecessarily increase the cost of gasoline, availability of natural gas and affordable, reliable electricity.
Commendably, I mentioned that Gov. Glenn Youngkin removed Virginia from the regressive 4% surcharge tax forced on Virginia electricity customers, which funded a Northeastern state scheme that has no effect on its stated weather or climate goals.
That’s not the only bureaucratic, regulatory and multi-state entanglement from which Mr. Youngkin has thankfully liberated Virginians. Due to a 2021 Virginia law, the Commonwealth was seemingly attached to California’s whimsical, controversial electric vehicle mandate. In June, based on a brilliant legal opinion by our outstanding Attorney General Jason Miyares, which determined that the law’s language was not binding, he was able to extricate Virginia car owners from the impractical, unwanted, uncompetitive mandate to which a dozen states are still linked.
It is especially telling that Virginia Auto Dealers Association President Don Hall, who previously supported Virginia’s EV law, has now changed course. He recently wrote, “The reality today is that current consumer demand for EVs in Virginia and nationally has not grown as quickly as production and inventory, and is compounded by costs, ‘range anxiety,’ and lack of charging and electrical infrastructure to support these vehicles.”
States with this mandate cede the authority of their people to make their own car emissions policy and instead automatically mirror California regulations on the type of cars individuals can buy and own — and these aren’t typical picayune, “nanny state” regulations, either. It requires that 35% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2026 or else face the imposition of thousands of dollars of penalties imposed on non-electric vehicles whether the people like it or not. The EV mandate numbers leap to 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
This mandate is contrary to realistic reasoning and the will of free people. Even liberal Connecticut repealed its mistaken California tie-in. It will be interesting to watch the backlash in the other handcuffed states in 2026 and the reality that the 100% mark by 2035 will need to be repealed or pushed back. Who should decide what kind of car you buy? You or the government bureaucracy?
The people under the yoke of this policy suffer the loss of individual freedom and economic opportunity. Every one of the 12 states still joined to the onerous California EV mandate (other than Delaware) is in the bottom half — and mostly ranked in the bottom — of Executive Magazine’s Worst States for Business.
However, the Biden-Harris administration is undeterred. In March, it imposed its EPA tailpipe emissions rules, which set a series of capricious deadlines for U.S. automakers to phase out conventional internal combustion engines with electric vehicles. This plan has run into many setbacks, including a lack of demand and costs that remain significantly out of reach for most families, again proving that governments cannot force favorable market conditions on free people.
This EV mandate is a prime example of the difference in the philosophical approaches between commonsense conservative principles that trust free people in a free market to decide rather than dictates from a State or any government bureaucracy.
Obviously, significant issues are confronting EV acceptance and usage. Sanctimonious governments ought not to stifle creativity with unrealistic manipulations. In our USA, free people should decide for themselves from various choices in an innovative free enterprise marketplace.
• George Allen is the former governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and a former U.S. Senator.
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