All light-duty cars and trucks sold in British Columbia would have to be zero-emission by 2040 under legislation tabled by NDP Premier John Horgan's government on Wednesday.
Energy Minister Michelle Mungall says the Zero Emission Vehicles Act aims to fight climate change by phasing out gas powered vehicles.
She says the legislation would set target dates of 10 per cent zero-emission sales by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2040.
The legislation would apply to new vehicles for sale or lease.
Mungall says zero emission vehicles are part of the government's $902 million CleanBC program to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 based on 2007 pollution levels.
She says the CleanBC plan includes incentives for zero-emission vehicle purchases up to $5,000 on a new battery electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and up to $6,000 for a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.
"British Columbians are eager to make the switch to zero-emission vehicles," said Mungall in the legislature. "We have the highest per capita adoption of zero emission vehicles in Canada, with over 17,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road, averaging four per cent of new light-duty vehicle sales in 2018."
Comments
Too little, too late. To meet our Paris commitments, we need to eliminate fossil fuel vehicles by 2030. It will take years to reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 2050 is only 30 years away. Fossil vehicles purchased in 2029 will produce carbon emissions until at least 2040. That gives us only 10 years to clean to up atmospheric carbon. Too little, too late. I, for one, want my children to live their lives on Earth, not Mars!
This should be interesting. Electric long-haul trucks aren't going to be there. I suppose he's counting on powering vehicles with fracked natgas.
We do realize that this ultimately means a reduction of economic activity, right? I'm all for that!
But it should be part of the process of eliminating CO2 emissions to educate the public that whey will need to learn to get along with less. Perhaps, much less. Otherwise, as soon as people see their standard of living slipping, they'll throw out the NDP and the Liberals will gut the Zero Emissions Vehicle Act, and the party will continue — until it cannot any longer.
I'm all for putting brakes on "the party." But that needs to be part of the process of reducing emissions: educating people that they must learn to honour and practice such forgotten arts as "frugality" and "thrift."
I am not so negative on the outcome of switching to electric vehicles. The auto industry when they put their engineering might behind designing and building electric vehicles that the people want there can be no stopping. Look at the advances we have made in just the past decade.
Electric long-haul trucks already exist! Loblaws bought a fleet from Tesla.
while the right and obvious thing for the Horgan government to do . they will have an uphill battle from the electric vehicle nay sayers. However I urge Mr. Horgan to stay the course and get the job done.