Massachusetts Unveils Plan to Slash Vehicle Emissions
The governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Barker, is determined to do what’s necessary to help cut emissions coming from his state. It’s an ambitious plan for zero net emissions by 2050, and while it focuses on several industries, it takes a hard look at cars.
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To meet the emissions goal, Barker plans to start a “decade for action,” according to Commonwealth Magazine. By 2030, the governor’s office would like to see 750,000 electric vehicles on the streets of Massachusetts. That’s a pretty ambitious hurdle to jump, considering that there are only about 30,000 EVs and hybrid currently registered in the state. It hopes that about 50 percent of new cars sold in the state by the end of 2030 are zero-emission light-duty vehicles. This will lead to a light-duty fossil-fuel cars ban by 2035.
The plan sets out to not only change what cars are on the road but cut down on how many miles they drive. “The Baker administration plan also calls for reducing commuter vehicle miles traveled by 15 percent, which aides said was the equivalent of reducing overall vehicle miles traveled by 4 percent,” reports Bruce Mohl from Commonwealth Magazine.
The state can regulate what its dealers can sell, but it’s going to be a tall order to cut down how far people commute. Will the governor’s office mandate that you can only live so close to your workplace? In bigger cities like Boston, it could be difficult to offer essential workers who keep downtown running affordable housing close to where they work thanks to gentrification and demand.
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Massachusetts is also one of four governments joining together in a vehicle emissions pact on the East Coast called the Transportation and Climate Initiative program. While 12 states worked together to try and form a plan together, as of late December only Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. had joined the Bay State in committing to the final goals. This commitment would see the states cap emissions from vehicles, slowly lowering the cap as years go on. An additional tax would be added to gas prices to encourage fuel conservation.
It’s not too late for other states to join in — the TCI program isn’t supposed to start until 2022.
We salute Massachusetts for taking a bold approach to try and slow climate change and emissions from the state. We just hope that the steps they plan to take aren’t so drastic that people fight them.
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