CARB DIDNT KILL THE ELECTRIC CAR

Brandon Lyon

CARB Didnt Kill the Electric Car

Brandon Lyon
IET-120-001
March 7th, 2016

CARB DIDNT KILL THE ELECTRIC CAR

Brandon Lyon

There are many views on who is responsible for closing the door on the mass production
of the Electric car, however there is clearly one entity that has been falsely accused. The
organization in question is the California Air Resources Board, or CARB.
Acording to www.arb.org (2015), CARB was an organization that was set up established
in 1967 By Ronald Reagan by way of being signed into law. This was all in an effort to control
things like smog level, CO2, and other motor vehicle emissions. California's emissions
standards are stricter than the federal EPA requirements, according to Patrick George (2008).
However in 1992 the EPA ordered CARB to cut motor vehicle emission by 10%. This is why
CARB then became the leader in ZEV, or zero emission vehicles.
CARB seams determined all throughout this time to meet there new EPA directive. So as
said before gave a stricter and steeper requirement where they, simply mandated that 10%
of all cars sold by 2003 must be ZEV, according to www.ev1.org s artcle, EV1 Behind the
Scene Our Sole Mission. The article later goes on to describe how many conflicting
organizations battled this mandate in court and by way of corporate, and governmental
lobbying. Many automobile companies followed suite. Even Oil industry associations,
mentioned in this article, had been fighting any sort of increase in miles-per-gallon (mpg) or
decrease in refinery or auto emissions, (www.ev1.org).
Through all this CARB did little to no budging on this topic. By this time they forced
GM to start manufacturing the EV1 (which came to be known as the first commercialized
electric car available for consumer purchase). History will show you that big companies, such as
the automotive ones being referred to do not appreciate being forced to do anything. And as far
as the oil companies are concerned, Electronic Vehicles could be saving Americans over $100

CARB DIDNT KILL THE ELECTRIC CAR

Brandon Lyon

million per year in avoided fuel costs, according to David Reichmuth (2014). It would be a safe
assumption to make, that this is annual revenue the oil industry could not afford to miss out on.
The Government however would be required to step in on backing the California Air
Resources Board when it came to actually requiring motor companies to produce these cars
because this was an issue of Federal magnitude. This gave the CARB a fragile platform because
the government did not lend their backing, even though CARB was only attempting to meet a
standard set by the governments EPA.
In the end many will give credit CARB for having a big hand in hybrid cars. Which
makes sense, because it adapts on a growing market of consumers and at the same time does not
pose too big of a threat to the pockets of large oil companies. There are many proprietors leading
to the death of the electronic car; however to say that a local government organization that
fought to meet a federal directive, and in turn was given no backing by the same federal
organization it was under, was responsible for crushing its main focus to meet said directive is,
as shown, factually un-based.

CARB DIDNT KILL THE ELECTRIC CAR

Brandon Lyon

Works cited
GM, Chevron and CARB killed the sole NiMH EV once, will do so again. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 07, 2016, from http://www.ev1.org/
George, P. E. (2008, September 12). How the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Works.
Retrieved March 07, 2016, from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fueleconomy/carb.htm
Key Events in the History of Air Quality in California. (2016, January 6). Retrieved March 07,
2016, from http://www.arb.ca.gov/html/brochure/history.htm
Reichmuth, D. (2015, March 25). Blog The Equation. Retrieved March 07, 2016, from
http://blog.ucsusa.org/dave-reichmuth/electric-vehicle-trends-458
Union of Concerned Scientists. (n.d.). History of California's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV)
Program. Retrieved March 07, 2016, from http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/smarttransportation-solutions/advanced-vehicle-technologies/electric-cars/californias-zero-emission1.html#.Vt4sGPkrLcc