Clean Cars: Minnesota Edition (6/11/2022)
Clean cars mean cleaner air and better health for us all. While Clean Car legislation is known to have been championed by California their laws have no jurisdiction here in Minnesota. Our state laws will continue to be passed in St. Paul (obviously federal law is made in Washington D.C. and will continue to be).
Federal Clean Car Standard
While the Clean Car standards began in California, they were passed into federal law during the Obama Administration. These standards continued to be in place from 2012 to 2020 and were widely supported. They applied to Minnesota car dealers as well as auto makers and dealers across the country.
The Minnesota Clean Car standards are simply an extension of what Minnesotans already followed under the federal law that was in effect from 2012-2020. There are not any parts of this legislation that go any farther.
Clean Car Standards in Minnesota
Currently, Minnesota is one of fourteen states that have resumed the Clean Cars standard for automobiles. Some of the other states include Pennsylvania, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, and Maine just to name a few.
By enacting this standard, the state of Minnesota will be a focal point for the deployment of more Low Emission Vehicles and Zero Emission Vehicles. These Clean Car standards will lead to more options for consumers, with automakers targeting Clean Car states. We know that enacting these standards will have these effects because we have seen it happen in other states.
Saving Consumers Money
Saving money in this economic environment is on the mind of just about everybody. With inflation increasing and gas prices skyrocketing, the Clean Car standards will leave the consumer with more opportunities to save money. Electric vehicles have been shown to save consumers thousands of dollars over the life cycle of the cars. And just think - with more electric vehicles on the road the air will be cleaner to breathe for everybody!
Minnesota vs. California
Many are worried because they’ve seen the scope of California laws. Some of their laws are outside the scope of the Clean Car standard - no additional requirements can be added to the Clean Car standards in Minnesota.
It should also be stated that Minnesota has no law to eliminate sales of combustion vehicles as California does. As is stated at the beginning of this article, all decisions dealing with Minnesota will continue to be made in St. Paul, by our Minnesota State Government.
Electric Grid Concerns
In the advent of more electric vehicles taking to the road in Minnesota, many have been concerned about grid reliability. The fact is, that electric vehicle charging will be beneficial to our electric grid - there is excess capacity in the electric grid now and more demand will actually increase stability.
In reality, a higher capacity from more electric car charging may result in lowering customer rates all around. This is because more volume lowers the cost per unit in regards to electricity. In addition, most charging will be done overnight which is during off peak hours. Programs already exist to allow consumers to receive a lower energy cost for consumers to charge at night.
Look for our next blog to be posted on Sunday, June 26th!