OPINION: Electric vehicles versus oil and gas – the new fault line among U.S. states – by Gus Carlson (Globe and Mail – January 21, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.

The push by a group of state lawmakers in Wyoming last week to introduce a bill banning the sale of electric vehicles by 2035 elicited as many sarcastic snickers as concerned frowns.

Even the backers of the bill admitted the effort was mostly symbolic, a supportive nod to the state’s oil and gas industry – a huge job-creation machine and revenue generator. And even if the proposed bill becomes law, its six Republican authors concede it will be difficult to enforce and unlikely to make an impact.

But as a direct response to recent moves by 15 states, including California and New York, to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, the bill points up the increasingly desperate attempts by small jurisdictions who tie their economic prosperity to fossil fuels to have their voices heard over the loud chorus singing the praises of the green movement.

And Wyoming, like so many sparsely populated, resource-rich states that are not the darlings of Washington insiders and the coastal elite, is trying to get creative to make its concerns known.

For the rest of this column: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-ev-ban-bill-wyoming/