Wyoming weighs electric car ban – Six lawmakers want the state to ban electric cars by 2035

https://www.nbc15.com/2023/01/16/wyoming-weighs-electric-car-ban/

By Nick Viviani

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (WMTV) – As more and more carmakers are overhauling their lineups to fill them with electric vehicles, some Wyoming lawmakers want to send those companies a message: Keep those cars out of our state.

A new proposal by six Wyoming state legislators would seek to ban sales of electric vehicles by 2035. While they do not want to see the people of Cowboy State riding horses again, they do want to keep people driving gas-powered cars.

The four senators and two representatives who sponsored the bill explain their aim is to protect the state’s oil and gas industries. They also claim a switch to electric vehicles would hurt the state economy and make it harder for Wyoming to trade with other states. The half-dozen lawmakers argue the country has invested heavily in oil and gas production and those investments have paid off to the tune of thousands of jobs in their state and the U.S.

Describing the drive to electric vehicles as a “misadventure,” they contend the lack of charging stations in Wyoming coupled with its vast highways would make driving such vehicles impractical. The bill asserts building out such a network in Wyoming and the nation would mean generating a massive amount of power.

The lawmakers note the materials used to make batteries for electric vehicles and worry that supply could be disrupted. According to their proposal the bill would preserve the United States’ supply of such minerals. Additionally, those batteries cannot be recycled or disposed of easily and new processes would need to be developed to get rid of or reuse them.

On top of nixing the sale of electric vehicles in Wyoming a dozen years from now, the bill would encourage businesses not to buy electric cars during that time. However, the bill does not lay out any procedures for doing so. Finally, it would asked the Wyoming Secretary of State to send a copy to federal lawmakers and to the Governor of California.

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