In a move that amounts to a naked display of political posturing, lawmakers in Wyoming say they want to ban the sale of electric vehicles in that state by 2035.
The proposal is directly tied to a plan by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in the California Legislature, who want to ban the sale of certain gas-powered vehicles in the Golden State by that year. The GOP lawmakers who sponsored the resolution in Wyoming made no secret of the correlation between the two proposals when they authored their measure: they asked that a copy of their resolution be sent to Newsom for him to review.
It’s uncommon for state legislators to request that a copy of a measure be sent to the executive of a different state, especially when the two states are roughly 1,150 miles apart from one another. The move amounts to nothing more than an attempt to score political points, as both California and Newsom are often used as punching bags for lawmakers on the right.
The six members of the Wyoming GOP that sponsored the resolution do spell out why they think banning the sale of electric cars in Wyoming may be worthwhile. They argue that the proliferation of electric vehicles in the state would have a disastrous effect.
“The proliferation of electric vehicles at the expense of gas-powered vehicles will have deleterious impacts on Wyoming’s communities and will be detrimental to Wyoming’s economy and the ability for the country to efficiently engage in commerce,” the resolution says.
The lawmakers also claim that phasing out such vehicles would allow the thousands in Wyoming employed by the oil and gas industry to keep their jobs, and say they doubt their state has the infrastructure it needs to meet the energy demands required to power an influx of electric vehicles.
This is at least the second time in recent months that GOP lawmakers in other states have taken the lead in admonishing California for its plan to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles. In October, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to block the move. The letter, which was authored by Ohio Rep. Bob Latta, was signed by 157 of his colleagues in the House Republican Conference, including then House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
That move seemed like a more serious one. Lotta and his colleagues argued that, for California to achieve its goal, the state would have to borrow an enormous amount of energy from other states — something it already does without thousands of new electric vehicles on its roads.
The California ban only applies to the sale of new cars and light trucks that run on gasoline. The new rules set deadlines for implementing a full ban as a way to help automakers come into compliance; by 2026 and 2030, respectively, electric cars must account for 35% and 68% of all new cars sold. Hybrid vehicles, which run on gasoline and electricity, are allowed under the new rules as long they are capable of running at least 50 miles exclusively on battery power and are less than 20% of new vehicles sold in California.