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California Considers Banning Internal Combustion Engines To Meet Emissions Goals (sacbee.com)
New submitter Rick Schumann writes about California considering a ban on internal combustion engines: The ban on internal-combustion engine automobiles would be at least 10 years away, and it's unclear at this early stage if it would ban only sales and use of new cars, or ban existing cars as well. There's also no mention of two (or three) wheeled vehicles at this stage. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is nevertheless considering this seriously, in order to meet its ambitious emissions reduction goals. According to state data, tailpipes generate more than one-third of all greenhouse gases, and so far only a small fraction of California's motorists drive electric vehicles. The announcement was made in an interview with Bloomberg news. "I've gotten messages from the governor asking, 'Why haven't we done something already?' The governor has certainly indicated an interest in why China can do this and not California," Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the CARB, told Bloomberg.
I have a better plan:
1) ban old vehicles. Sorry, no exemptions for "classics" (esp. not garbage cars from the 70s-80s). Put them in a museum where they belong (private museums are ok). If you really want to drive a historic car, you can transplant a newer engine into it.
1a) compromise: keep the old-car exemption, but increase the cut-off date. 80s cars are not "classics", nor the ugly cars from the 70s.
2) ban 2-cycle engines, typically used in portable lawn equipment (trimmers/edgers, leafblowers). These spew an incredible amount of nasty emissions. The weedwacker makers can make 4-cycle engines instead; anyone too weak to handle the heavier equipment can either hire someone, or convert their lawn to xeriscaping (sp?). To facilitate this, make a state law banning stupid HOAs and other localities from requiring green lawns.
3) pass a law greatly tightening the emissions standards for 4-cycle lawn equipment and boat engines. Lawnmowers are typically 4-cycle, but they're still nasty polluters with engine tech that hasn't changed since the 50s. Microcontrollers are dirt cheap these days, so there's no excuse for them to not use fuel injection, especially on the larger engines like on riding mowers. They don't even need to use the latest GDI technology, just something equivalent to the simplistic EFI cars had in the 80s, and there'll be a big improvement in emissions and fuel economy too.
4) Enact some kind of incentives to move to electric motors for lawn equipment. They already have electric mowers (push and riding); they need to push those more somehow. Stricter emissions regulations would probably make it so the lawnmower makers just give up on gas engines altogether since the electric tech is already here.
5) Pass some kind of legislation to push lithium battery recycling. Right now, lead-acid batteries have an astoundingly high recycling rate; you can take them to any auto parts store, and any place that sells and replaces them for you also recycles them. There's places to take lithium batteries, but it probably needs some more publicity or something. I'm really sick of hearing anti-electric-car idiots talk about the "environmental issues" of lithium, as if these batteries would just tossed in the trash when they get old. For cars, that wouldn't be a problem for the same reason it isn't a problem for lead-acid starting batteries, but for lawn equipment, portable electronics, etc., they need to make sure these things are being recycled safely and properly and not just landfilled, or sent to some 3rd-world country to cause a mess there with shoddy recycling.
6) As for cars, 10 years is too soon for many reasons. Instead, push for a combination of more EVs and more hybrids. I'd say that requiring all cars and trucks to at least be hybrids in 10 years is doable; the tech has been out for quite some time now. A lot of emissions and poor fuel economy are caused by all the stopping and starting in city driving, and hybrids are a big help here. There's even pretty low-cost hybrid systems available that some automakers use; they don't perform as well as the Prius system, but they cost a lot less, and do help economy a decent amount.