The New York Times reports:
If you read the fine print, however, the picture looks a bit different:
California would fine automakers up to $20,000 for every car that falls short of production targets. The state also could propose new amendments revising the sales targets if the market doesn’t react as state leaders hope.
In other words, California reserves the right for future Gov. Emily Litella to say “never mind,” as it did with its 10 percent emission-free car mandate for the year 2000, and the recent (likely) decision to reverse closing down California’s last nuclear power plant. Reality has a way of intruding on progressive dreams.
But suppose California perseveres with this madness. Nature magazine notes:
The ban isn’t total — people could still buy gas-guzzlers from another state or drive an older model. And emission-free cars don’t mean no emissions at all: electric cars require power, some of which might be produced by burning fossil fuels.
Or we’ll likely allow increased immigration of Cuban auto mechanics, who know how to keep internal combustion engines going for decades. Not the kind of “Cubanization” of California the left has in mind, though.
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