Electric Vehicles: :: Essays Papers

Electric Vehicles: Policy Concerns: Electric vehicles need the help of policy and regulations if they are to be successful. Currently, both state and the federal governments have implemented some policies to help drive electric car technology. An example of this is the tax breaks some receive for owning an alternate fuel vehicle. However, the United States government is also very involved in the petroleum industry. As a result the price of oil remains artificially low and the prospect for clean air-alternate fuel vehicles even further down the road. Due to the fact that the oil industry can provide the politicians with more monetary influence, the government is still being slow on making the necessary policy adjustments that will allow this new technology to start. One of the most major regulations is in California and is a mandate that ten percent of all new car sales in 2003 must be alternate fueled-zero emissions vehicles. However, as good as this seems it has been tried before to no result. The big car manufacturers got together and used their power to overcome this law and not create alternate fueled vehicles in the numbers that were asked by the board. Because of this the year the mandate would take effect has been pushed back over and over again. 2003 was the latest procrastination, and we will see how much happens now. There are in fact other policies that might have an effect. The Clear Air Acts Amendment (CAAA) has setup a list of requirements for certain types of vehicles. These are guidelines initially setup in the 1970s by the Environmental Protection Agency. They have since been updated in 1990. They have said that a certain number of municipal fleets must be low-emission vehicles. However, these can still be run usually gas, they just must not pollute too much. The EPA has been working very hard to push vehicles that do not pollute. However, they are mostly interested in vehicles with low emissions instead of zero. Because of this the internal combustion engine has been able to keep up and reduce their emissions enough to remain legal. If the EPA wanted to really make ground they would need to pass policy that will create radical change due to a zero emission policy. Another set of policy that was passed by the federal government is known as the Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988 (AMFA). This is a mandate that the Department of Energy create certain guidelines that consumers can use to accurately compare alternate fueled vehicles to gas powered vehicles.