Next 10 in the News

California is on pace to exceed its goal of 1.5 million electric cars on the streets by 2025, according to a new report from public policy think tank Next 10.

Even though there are only about 340,000 zero-emission vehicles in California today, the state is on par to reach its goal of 1.5 million by 2025.

For more than 50 years, California has reliably called on growth in gasoline tax revenues to offset the maintenance cost of its massive freeway and highway system. But what if those revenues eventually peak, and then, decline?

Californians can’t shake their love affair with cars – and pickup trucks and SUV’s. That’s hurting the greenest state in the union’s much-publicized crusade against climate change.

In 2006, California passed its groundbreaking climate legislation AB 32, which put in place a target for greenhouse gas reductions and set in motion a cascade of regulations, subsidies, and performance standards that has continued unabated ever since. Further decarbonization means wrestling with transportation.

California’s advocates for fuel economy standards and zero-emission vehicle mandates should toughen their rules, according to a non-profit that said road emissions have undercut the state’s efforts to reduce pollution.

To anyone who believes environmental regulation is poison for profits, California must be infuriating. The state’s pollution policies rarely wilt its perennially blooming economy.