Plan to spend $3B for electric car rebates dies in Legislature
California Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill called the California Electric Vehicle Initiative that would set aside $3 billion over 12 years to provide subsidies for motorists who buy cars that qualify under the state
Plans for the California Legislature to spend $3 billion over 12 years to provide rebates for motorists to buy zero-emissions vehicles failed to cross the finish line in the waning days of the legislative session in Sacramento.
“Unfortunately, we ran out of time this year to reach an agreement but our need to act remains clear,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D- San Francisco, who introduced Assembly Bill 1184. The final day of the session wraps up Sept. 15.
The bill is still technically alive but was stripped of its funding and dramatically altered. Instead, AB 1184 exists as a directive to the California Air Resources Board to produce a report due in 2019 to study the best ways to implement rebate legislation.
In its original form, the bill’s $3 billion price tag was six times higher than the nearly $500 million so far spent on rebates.
While campaigning for the bill, Ting said the goal was to make the cost of zero-emissions vehicles the same as the cost for similar-sized internal combustion vehicles, as an attempt to meet Gov. Jerry Brown’s goal to have 1.5 million clean-energy vehicles on California’s roads by 2025. Just under 324,000 have been sold thus far.
Besides its cost, the bill was criticized as too vaguely worded.
In a statement, Ting vowed not to give up.
“California must have more clean cars on the road to meaningfully reduce the emissions that dirty our air and contribute to climate change,” Ting said.
Business
rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com
(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski
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