Today, Maryland.Com republished an article from the Baltimore Sun: HOGAN URGED TO ADOPT CALIFORNIA E-VEHICLE STANDARDS: Maryland legislators and environmental groups are urging Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration to adopt California’s new electric vehicle standards by the end of the year or risk falling behind the Golden State.
Elections certainly have consequences and this one is a biggie … the Maryland State Legislature is urging the lame duck Governor Hogan to make Maryland like California by adopting California E-Vehicle standards. For those who may not be familiar with what is being proposed, here it is: In August, CARB (California Air Resources Board) said it would require all new vehicles sold in California by 2035 to be electric or plug-in hybrid electrics (PHEVs) … Now, I think we all understand that electric vehicles (EVs) are coming even if the public in general does not want to fully embrace them … yet!
What is concerning here is that, for some unknown reason, the Maryland Legislature wants to be like California … the state with the highest taxes, the state with the highest real estate costs, the state with the highest fuel prices, and the state with highest number of people choosing to leave the state rather than continuing to live in a place where open air drug markets operate with impunity, where the homeless are defecating in the street, and where prosecutors refuse to put criminals in jail.
That’s who Maryland wants to be? Seriously? But I digress … the issue is EV’s.
The Maryland Legislature can talk a good game and Larry Hogan might just be dumb enough to take the bait --- after all, he thinks supporting the Maryland Legislature demonstrates his ability to “work across the aisle” … I would leave this decision to the next Administration because it might just get a real Republican elected in 2026… but, again, I drift! The real issue here is whether Maryland is ready for such a bold move.
Just looking around Montgomery County at the multi-unit dwellings from town homes to apartment complexes, I wonder … How will charging stations be provided to all those residences?
Who is going to pay to upgrade the electric transformers that currently bring electric to these buildings? Imagine the demand on the electrical system when people return from work at 6PM and they all plug in at the same time!! Who is going to pay to dig up the electrical lines, cut trenches through town house and apartment building parking lots to lay those lines that will need to connect to a charging station of some sort?
Who does the legislature say would pay? My bet is they have not even considered that question. My own HOA has just started to wrestle with this subject and they are finding out – ain’t as easy as it looks!!
Along with this spectacular idea, the legislature wants us to convert all our power to windmills and solar panels. We have already seen the fragility of that idea – frozen windmills in Texas in the dead of winter, for example … it could happen here! And wildfires in Cali that take out the electric grid – no car charging right along with no cell phones! But hey … it’s “damn the torpedoes full steam ahead…” … let’s be the second state in the nation to be California --- after all, what do YOU have to lose?