Op-Ed: Here’s how companies can strong-arm their suppliers into cutting carbon emissions — without permission or the expense of hiring auditors
When a new car is sold, a salesperson tells the buyer that the car has been certified to run on electricity for up to 100 miles before needing to be recharged or refueled. That certification is required not only by EPA but also by the National Fire Protection Association and the insurance industry. What we call “compliance” with the environmental laws we do not enforce.
The car and the insurance company are paying the electric car maker, and the buyer is not paying the electric car maker for electricity use.
That was the idea behind the electric car industry’s voluntary standards for electric vehicle (EV) battery and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicle emissions, which began in 2014.
But that voluntary approach, known as the first-to-market standard, was only partly successful. By 2016, some 25 EVs in California had surpassed the state’s 100-mile EV mandate.
California, however, is the world’s largest producer, and most influential, of electric cars. California is the only state to require automakers to sell their cars to customers for a price, and that price is not based on the price of gas (unless you go with a gas-electric hybrid, where the purchase price does include the cost of paying for the gas and electricity used by that hybrid). So, in California, the EV owners are paying for electricity that the non-EV owners, who also purchased the car for electricity, don’t pay.
In California, the automakers also pay for the compliance. They have to pay for the compliance to get the certification, which is a big part of the regulatory compliance. And the manufacturers get to profit on the compliance. In fact, they get to pay the government, who would have to fine them, and the government gets to profit on compliance.
This is a direct attack on the free market and it’s also illegal under the law. But that’s not stopping the companies — or the lawmakers who do not understand economics and the law.
We are at the dawn of a new era when
