This piece from Nevada Assemblywoman was first published in the Elko Daily on March 8, 2024 and can be accessed here.
Kasama: Nevada supports EVs without compromising consumer choice
· HEIDI KASAMA
· Mar 8, 2024
In most markets for goods and services, American consumers have choices. Why should the market for transportation fuels be any different? It shouldn’t, of course, and Nevada is quietly leading the country towards a truly open and competitive market for the fuels that make our cars and trucks run.
For more than a century, individuals and businesses effectively had once choice — petroleum. Gasoline and diesel continue to dominate the transportation fuels market. But major improvements in battery and fuel cell technologies have provided another choice — electricity.
Now, in typical fashion, some special interest groups aren’t satisfied with people choosing electricity over gasoline or diesel. Instead, they have tried to force electric vehicles into the market through government mandates.
The most obvious example is California, which is banning the sale of cars and SUVs powered by gasoline or diesel by 2035 — just 12 years from now.
The trucking industry is also in the sights of California’s bureaucrats and politicians. Newly purchased trucks that move freight between ports, railyards and distribution centers must be electric. Thankfully, Nevada is moving in a different direction — one that embraces the promise of new fuels and consumer choice, and, above all, trusts consumers to decide for themselves.
In this year’s legislative session, I had the honor of co-sponsoring AB184, championed by Assemblyman Howard Watts and subsequently signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo. This groundbreaking law establishes an incentive program for the acquisition of medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, powered by either batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. Additionally, one key aspect of this bill that resonates with me is the utilization of federal funds for incentives, ensuring that no state money is involved. When we collaborate across party lines, our community reaps the benefits of our collective efforts.
The legislation, which passed the Nevada Assembly with strong bipartisan support, reduces the upfront cost of purchasing electric trucks and buses for companies, independent truck operators, nonprofits, local governments, state agencies and other private and public fleet owners. The amount of the incentive varies by the size of the vehicle, and the potential purchaser of an electric truck or bus gets to decide if buying a vehicle powered by a battery or fuel-cell makes sense for their own needs.
This makes the program much more workable — and much less of a political lightning rod — than a California style mandate that ignores the individual needs of a business or a local government. For some purchasers, an electric truck or bus makes sense right now. For others, it may take years before switching .
The creation of Nevada’s new Clean Trucks and Buses Incentive Program is also an important reflection of the state’s role in developing and building the technologies that will support a truly competitive marketplace for transportation fuels.
Last year, Gov. Lombardo announced that Tesla would be investing $3.6 billion to expand its existing Gigafactory in Nevada. The investment would add an electric semitruck manufacturing plant and a battery assembly plant capable of producing enough batteries for 1.5 million electric vehicles per year.
The Tesla news was followed by a $2 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan to battery recycling firm Redwood Materials, which is planning a major expansion of its existing Nevada plant.
Once complete, the recycling plant is projected to produce enough batteries to power 1 million electric vehicles per year.
Nevada’s policy on electric trucks and buses is based in reality, not good intentions or political ideology. The successful adoption of new technologies takes time. It is driven by personal choice, as individual consumers weigh the costs and benefits of trying something new or sticking with what they have for a while longer.
The government didn’t mandate the use of smartphones or streaming apps. It shouldn’t try to force people in electric vehicles either. Because at the end of the day, if electric vehicles prove themselves to be a better product, they will sell themselves without the need for any heavy-handed mandates.
Heidi Kasama is a Republican Assemblywoman from Clark County. She wrote this opinion piece for the Elko Daily Free Press.