The US state wants fewer electric cars

In the Netherlands, cities like Amsterdam are leading the way with plans to only allow electric cars by 2030. In the United States, progressive states like New York and California have similar intentions. These Democratic-majority states want to ban the sale of combustion engine cars by 2035.

The Republican state of Wyoming is now opting for a move in the other direction with a bill: a phase-out of the sale of electric cars, too by 2035. The proposal calls for a voluntary halt to electric car sales in the state, to protect the state’s “proud and esteemed” oil, coal and gas industries, and the jobs associated with them.

The proposal also highlights the practical impossibilities of electric transportation in a vast, sparsely populated state like Wyoming. The state is six times larger than the Netherlands, but only half a million people live there.

Largely symbolic

The bill does not seek to force the phasing out of plug-in cars, but calls on Wyoming residents and businesses to voluntarily participate. Electric cars will therefore not be banned, but the proponents of the bill mainly want to express a dissenting voice to the supporters of the new cars. The proposal therefore calls for it to be forwarded to, among others, US President Biden, who has implemented many green measures.

“You could almost take it as a joke, but it’s clearly a very serious matter that requires public debate,” Senator Brian Boner, one of the bill’s supporters, told the House. Cowboy State Daily. “I want to make sure that the solutions that some people have for the so-called climate crisis are really practical in real life. I just don’t appreciate other states trying to force technology that isn’t still ready.” Boner told me.

Wyoming is not necessarily against green solutions, as evidenced by the presence of one of the largest wind farms in the USA. But for now, the state still derives most of its revenue from fossil fuels, as it has for generations.