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Lamont backed off his plan that would have required all new vehicles sold in the state to be electric or zero-emission by 2035 after he realized he didn't have the votes in the Regulations Review Committee to get it passed.
The Committee is split evenly with seven Democrats and seven Republicans. Advocates expressed concern that two Democrats could have broken party ranks, which would have sunk the plan.
If the plan had been accepted by the Regulations Review Committee, it would have been enacted without any further action by the full state House of Representatives and Senate.
But now that the proposed regulations have been withdrawn, Lamont and the democrats are expected to raise the issue again in the General Assembly during the 2024 session or perhaps even sooner in a special session, as was suggested by House Speaker Matt Ritter, D- Hartford.
Lamont still believes that "2035 is working" and he loves "the fact that it’s not Connecticut going alone. It’s not Connecticut and California, which gets everybody’s hair on fire. It’s Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico. There’s a broad base. Almost 40% of the American population is leaning in this direction.”
However, concerns about affordability (including home charging stations), infrastructure and energy capacity are real, and must be properly addressed when Lamont's plan comes before the General Assembly.
“We have things we need to do in turn that will be part of a larger bill,” said House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford. “We have to do more. We have to demonstrate to the Connecticut residents that this switch will not only save the environment – save lives and save our planet – but not leave you in a position where you can no longer afford a vehicle.”
“We know that gasoline cars are on their way out and we will have all electric vehicles in the future, and we want to make sure that future happens as soon as we can,” said President Pro Tempore of the Senate Martin Looney, D-New Haven. “We also have to make sure that future happens in an equitable way, not leaving any communities behind.”
Ahead of the Committee meeting, Republicans had called the EV mandate the "ban without a plan".
Republican Senate Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, said, "They didn’t put forward a plan. We need more than a regulation; they’ve admitted there’s no plan to back up what those regulations had... Quite frankly, I would hope that we would have the benefit of a public hearing. We want to hear, we need to hear in this building, the people’s voice.”
Not just the people's voice, but also Eversource's voice, especially with respect to how it plans to meet the energy demand imposed by electric vehicles.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) said, “The Governor’s decision to pull proposed regulations banning the sales of new gas-powered vehicles is a prudent move considering the growing revolt from a diverse chorus of stakeholders with concerns ranging from electric grid capacity and reliability to the availability of charging stations and simple freedom of choice."
However, the "growing revolt" has not stopped the globalists who are behind the push for net-zero.
In fact, just yesterday the World Economic Forum issued a new call for $13.5 trillion in investments in order to fast-track decarbonization for "hard-to-abate" industry sectors including energy and transportation, which depend on fossil fuels and "pose some of the most technological and capital-intensive decarbonization challenges."
According to the report, the majority of the technologies needed to support net-zero emissions are not expected to reach commercial maturity until after 2030, which suggests that Lamont's plans are at best premature.
