So we seem to agree. And the automakers are fine with this too which makes sense, they want consistent stable standards. The only person who wants to scrap emission standards is Trump cause…
My point was simply the market cannot handle externalities. Even Adam Smith realized this hundreds of years ago. Personal interest doesn’t line up with protecting the environment. One could even make a tragedy of the commons analogy with pollution = grazing cows and breathable air = grass.
Now this is going to sound political but it isn’t, the same comment applies to voters across the political spectrum. Anyhow, the vast majority of voters don’t have actual coherent political beliefs or enough understanding of the system to translate their beliefs into correct voting patterns. They support a party because their parents did, their neighbors do etc… I’ll forego examples cause that would get political.
You can’t really compare CA to HI…they are shipping their fuel across the Pacific so are incurring huge costs. They been advancing towards solar, geothermal and wind recently so it will get better for them in the future.
The cap and trade program in California is a tax on oil companies and others in the supply chain. These additional costs just get passed on to consumers in the name of reducing certain types of emissions.
California also requires the use of different gasoline in the summer to control emissions, which adds to refining, storage and distribution costs.
Adds to costs, but lower emissions like you said. Isn’t that the whole point? Yea it sucks that you have to pay more, but in return you get less polluted air. Isn’t that a fair trade?
That is a very simple way of looking at it. I would argue that, especially for big metro where pollution can accumulate to dangerous levels, these CARB regulations can actually reduce overall costs considering health benefits. What good is it to save $1k every 10 years you buy a car and pay $10k over that same time frame on medical due to health issues caused by the increased pollution? This is a chain reaction so we need to look at the big picture here. For fuck sake, the Chinese are starting to get it and become the biggest ev market.
SoCal air is still not clean, not by a long shot. We lead the nation in air pollution. Incidents of asthma and other respiratory-related illnesses are on the rise, and the implications on the effect of cost on healthcare is in the hundreds of millions. Particulate matter density is still unacceptably and unhealthily high.
I’m not mad that I pay more in gas for cleaner air, I’m mad that I pay more in gas for “new infrastructure” when all of the roads and freeways are crumbling apart.
Honestly I have numerous complaints, but the conditions of local roads isn’t one of them.
The main thoroughfare from the freeway into our neighborhood has been resurfaced at least three times in the last 15 years and it currently looks brand new.
Thinking about the 5, 805, 15, 78, 56, 8, 94, 54, 125, I can’t think of any of the freeways that need any significant attention regarding their condition, although all could/should be widened.
I think I’ve covered the rest, but in the interest of full disclosure I rarely encounter 905 or 76 – so those could be awful.
Separately, our 7 Series is at our other home > 2,000 miles away.
