Wildfires and Rolling Blackouts: CA Democrat Lawmakers Pushing Electric Vehicles

With wildfires burning 1.3 million acres throughout the state, and rolling power blackouts from the weak electrical grid, the California State Senate Appropriations Committee voted to pass Assembly Bill 326 to make driving an Electric Vehicle “more accessible for all Californians” through month-to-month memberships without long-term loans or leases.

Assembly Bill 326 by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), is a gut-and-amend bill, shelved in April 2019, but brought back to life in 2020 with new language.

New bill analysis says, “AB 326 would establish a new business model between consumers (including individuals, businesses, and government entities) and specified ‘electric mobility manufacturers’ that allow a consumer to use an electric or zero emission vehicle for a fee through a membership program with an electric mobility manufacturer, as specified. The bill would establish a process for the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue a permit to act as an electric mobility manufacturer.”

Muratsuchi says the bill “will bring much needed clarity to California’s existing legal framework, specifically for electric vehicle manufacturers wanting to offer ‘electric vehicle memberships’ to consumers, as an additional alternative to purchasing, renting, or leasing.”

Muratsuchi and Allen say “With 435,000 Zero Emission Vehicles currently on California’s roads, electric vehicle sales are growing, but not nearly as fast as needed to meet California’s aggressive zero emission goals of 5 million ZEVs on the road by 2030.”

The tone-deaf lawmakers are astounding. Californians are far more concerned with surviving the wildfires right now, and hoping to keep their electricity on during this heat wave.

Roseville Electric in Placer County, recently asked electric car drivers to not charge their cars during the rolling blackouts.

“Mass adoption of electric vehicles will not happen in the state as long as electric vehicles continue to be more expensive than combustion-engine vehicles.”

Mass adoption of electric vehicles hasn’t happened because people don’t want them as much as politicians want people driving them. When subsidies for electric vehicles were cut by governments, sales dropped significantly.

Perhaps a bill to mandate forest maintenance would be more appropriate… or a bill to remove former Gov. Jerry Brown’s ban on hydraulic fracturing for the state’s abundant natural gas.

The list of AB 326 supporters explains a lot:

Coalition for Clean Air, California League of Conservation Voters, CalPIRG, Sierra Club, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Plug In America, Voices for Progress, Union of Concerned Scientists, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, California Reinvestment Coalition, Consumer Action, Center for Biological Diversity, Rivian, Consumer Attorneys of California, CalSTART, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA), Canoo, and the City of Thousand Oaks.