Virginians, Not Californians, Should Decide Virginia Laws and Policy

Sen Perry abdicated her role as a legislator by conceding Virginia’s rights to make decisions on
clean air to California.

Perry and the other seven democrats on the Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources
subcommittee, voted to kill proposed legislation (SB 3) which would have returned decisions on
the vehicles we drive to Virginia rather than California.

Current law passed by democrats in 2021 mandates Virginia to follow California law which
states that all new cars sales in 2035 must be EV. Sales of new gas-powered cars will be
banned. The law also requires that 35% of new car sales be hybrid or EV by 2026. Currently,
we have about 2% hybrid/EV.

Perry buys into the far-left rhetoric that EV will help save the environment and that government
must take away the right of a citizen to choose the car they want to buy by 2035.

Don’t buy into the shallow thinking that EVs are God’s gift to clean air.

Here are some ugly truths:

EV cars require massive batteries the production of which generates much more CO2 than the
production of a gas-powered engine, and releases harmful and dangerous air pollutants.

The production of batteries to power the volume of EVs leftists envision will drive higher life-
time emissions than gasoline powered cars. This is due to the large quantity of energy required
to mine, manufacture, process, store, and transport the lithium batteries used in EVs.

EV batteries need cobalt. Much of the mining for cobalt is done through child labor in foreign
countries.

Lithium batteries are a hazardous waste. Replacing a lithium battery can cost $20,000.

EV cars need charging stations. Better think carefully about your cross-country trip when
driving an EV. Especially in the winter, unless your good with not using the car heater.

Charging EVs requires a power grid that can support it. Have you read about California’s rolling
brown-outs? Their electrical grid can’t support the demand for electricity. Under democrat
policy, Virginia brownouts are only a matter of time.

Don’t get me wrong. If you want to buy an EV, buy an EV. What I don’t like is a government
telling me what car I can and can’t buy based on their symbolic concern for the environment.