Congratulations! You have made it through just over a year of the Democratic candidates campaigning to become their party’s nominee. Only nine months to go until the general election.
Now that the first Democratic primaries are about to happen, we figured it’s time to take a serious look at what they’re promising (or threatening) about cars. We went through the field of candidates and examined what each one’s platform says about the future of personal transportation. We wondered about these issues:
- Do they support a transition to electric vehicles?
- Where do they stand on stricter emissions standards?
- Do they talk about more EV charging stations?
- What kind of programs do they favor, if any, to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles?
- Since many of these plans rely on electricity and its sources, we also looked for whether the candidates want to transition energy sources in the U.S. to more sustainable ones (hint: they all do).
Climate change has been a focal point of the Democratic primaries, so much so that CNN held a town hall for each of the candidates so they could discuss how they would approach the issue if they were elected president. Transportation—including personal transportation—has been brought into that conversation since, in 2019, transportation made up 29 percent of all emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Of those emissions, 59 percent originated from light-duty vehicles.
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Due to the size of the Democratic field, we are including only the top seven candidates according to the New York Times’s poll aggregation. Their answers are given in order of their standing in the polls as of January 31: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Andrew Yang. We used each candidate’s own website to gauge where they stand on each topic. Those listed under “No” do not make mention of their stance on the given topic; this doesn’t necessarily mean they oppose it.
Some of the candidates have more extensive plans than others—including how they plan to execute the things they support—when it comes to personal transportation. We summarized the stances of each candidate to make the information more digestible. In cases where candidates provided actual numbers for how they’d fund a program, we left those out due to the lack of consistency in what precisely is being funded. You can find that information on the candidates’ respective sites, which are linked above.
On a candidate’s website, they make explicit they aim to . . .
. . . transition to 100 percent of passenger vehicles on the market being zero-emission vehicles.
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Six of the seven candidates state that they want this transition to zero-emission vehicles. Considering current technology, zero-emission or “clean” means electric powered.
Yes
Biden: Biden’s site doesn’t provide a timeline for his goal, but it does read that he supports “developing rigorous new fuel-economy standards aimed at ensuring 100 percent of new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles will be electrified.”
Sanders: Sanders’s campaign site says he supports a “transition to 100 percent electric vehicles,” adding that he wants “100 percent sustainable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030.”
Warren: Warren’s campaign site reads: “By 2030, [there will be] 100 percent zero emissions for all new light-duty passenger vehicles, medium-duty trucks, and all buses.”
Bloomberg: Bloomberg made a late entrance into the Democratic field, but his transportation plans have made some waves. On personal transportation, his stance is: “By 2035, 100 percent of new vehicles are pollution-free.”
Buttigieg: On Buttigieg’s campaign site, it says, “By 2035 . . . require zero emissions for all new passenger vehicles.”
Yang: Yang is one of the only candidates with a clear plan on having all personal vehicles on the road being “zero-emission,” as most other candidates focus solely on new vehicles. Yang’s campaign site reads, “First, vehicles on the ground need to hit zero-emissions by 2040. The standard for all car models from 2030 on should be zero-emission.”
No Response
Klobuchar: Her campaign website does not address this issue at all.
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. . . put stricter emissions standards in place for new vehicles.
Although it would seem emissions standards and a transition to zero-emission vehicles would be mutually exclusive, for some of the candidates, they’re not.
Yes
Biden: Biden supports both a transition to all-electric vehicles and stricter emissions standards. His site says that he “will work to develop a new fuel-economy standard that goes beyond what the Obama-Biden Administration put in place.”
Warren: Warren works her emissions standards plan into her transition to electric vehicles, saying, “In my first year in office, I’ll set strict vehicle emissions standards that will become progressively tighter every year, reaching a requirement for 100 percent zero emissions for all new light- and medium-duty vehicles by 2030.”
Bloomberg: Bloomberg supports both plans for stricter emissions standards and a plan for transitioning to emission-free vehicles. On this topic, his site says that he will “reinstate the federal gas mileage and pollution standards for passenger cars and trucks, and reaffirm states’ rights to set higher standards.”
Buttigieg: Before Buttigieg’s site goes into his support for a transition to electric vehicles, it reads that his administration would “immediately enact more stringent vehicle emission standards.”
Klobuchar: Klobuchar doesn’t put forth plans for emission-free vehicles but instead takes a stance to “restore and strengthen our fuel-economy standards, which are key to making an immediate impact on the emissions of cars and light trucks.”
No Response
Sanders, Yang
VCG
. . . transition to 100 percent emission-free energy sources.
A significant part of the debate around electric vehicles concerns where the power comes from. Opponents of the technology point to the electricity coming from “dirty” sources such as coal or oil. For that reason, we thought it was important to include how each candidate approaches the topic of energy sources.
All of the seven candidates in this group want our energy system to have smaller—or no—impact on the environment. Where they split is whether they support a transition to emission-free energy sources or net-zero emission sources.
Yes
Sanders: Sanders has one of the most aggressive energy transition goals, aiming to complete the transition by 2030. His campaign site says he wants to “transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent energy efficiency and sustainable energy by 2030 at the latest,” adding that this means “100 percent renewable energy.”
Warren: Although Warren supports both net-zero emissions and zero emissions, her end goal is zero emissions. Her campaign site says she aims to “require utilities to achieve 100 percent carbon-neutral power by 2030, with strong interim targets along the way, and to achieve all-clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy in electricity generation by 2035.”
Bloomberg: Of the candidates who want energy production to be emission-free, Bloomberg proposes the longest timeline to make that transition. His site says he aims to propel “the country towards a 100 percent clean-energy economy-wide future as soon as humanly possible and before 2050 . . . ensuring 80 percent clean electricity by the end of his second term of office.”
Yang: Yang’s plan involves several steps, including for new nuclear reactors to be brought online by 2027. Then by 2035, five years after Yang aims to have a zero-emission standard for new cars, he wants to “build a clean electricity system with zero emissions.”
No Response
Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar
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. . . transition to net-zero-emissions energy sources.
While the more progressive Democratic candidates in the race lay out goals for energy sources to have no emissions, the others in the field want a transition to net-zero-emission energy sources. And although those two things may sound the same, they have key differences.
In the case of zero-emission energy sources, that means that energy sources cannot generate any emissions. On the other hand, net-zero emissions—or carbon neutrality—means that emissions from energy sources must be offset through methods of removing carbon from the atmosphere. This can be done through something as simple as planting trees, or by using technology to perform carbon removal.
In this category, all three candidates with this stance have similar timelines.
Yes
Biden: Biden’s website states that he supports the U.S. achieving “a 100 percent clean-energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050 here at home.”
Buttigieg: His campaign site says that he supports making “our society a net-zero emissions one no later than 2050, working aggressively toward immediate targets.”
Klobuchar: In line with the other candidates in this grouping, Klobuchar’s site says she aims to “achieve 100 percent net-zero emissions no later than 2050.”
No Response
Sanders, Warren, Bloomberg, Yang
. . . incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles through buyback programs or tax credits.
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In order to achieve a transition to the cleaner vehicles that candidates say they support, many of the candidates include support for incentives for new-vehicle purchases as well as tax credits. There are strong differences between the candidates in what they specifically support.
Yes
Biden: Biden is fairly straightforward on this issue; his campaign site says that he aims to “restore the full electric-vehicle tax credit to incentivize the purchase of these vehicles.”
Sanders: Sanders’s plan for vehicle incentives and a trade-in program includes providing “grants to low- and moderate-income families and small businesses to trade in their fossil-fuel-dependent vehicles for new electric vehicles,” as well as funding a program “for low- and moderate- income families and small businesses for a trade-in program to get old cars off the road.”
Warren: Warren, Sanders, and Bloomberg all support both tax credits and a buyback program to transition to zero-emission transportation. Her site says she will “extend business and consumer tax credits for purchasing zero-emission vehicles . . . and create a ‘Clean Cars for Clunkers’ program, based on the Recovery Act trade-in program, to extend financial incentives to encourage consumers to replace fuel-inefficient cars with zero-emission vehicles.”
Bloomberg: Bloomberg, like Warren and Sanders, supports the implementation of both tax credits and a buyback program to transition to zero-emission vehicles. His site says that he supports making “electric vehicles affordable for all families by lifting the cap on those eligible for tax credits, and offer rebates for some families.” The site continues, adding he wants to “launch a national ‘Clean Cars for All’ program that offers bigger rebates to low- and moderate-income families trading in older, dirtier vehicles for electric ones, or provides vouchers for transit, or bike-share and other mobility programs.”
Buttigieg: In order to support the transition to zero-emission vehicles, Buttigieg aims “to increase and enhance the electric-vehicle tax credit to a maximum of $10,000 per vehicle, which will begin to phase out only when a certain percentage of vehicles sold in the U.S. each year are EVs.”
Klobuchar: Klobuchar’s site lays out a relatively straightforward goal, saying that she supports bringing “back the tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases.”
No Response
Yang
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. . . expand the network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
More electric vehicles on the road increases the need for more charging stations; every candidate supports expanding the charging network in the U.S., yet they vary in how they aim to do so and what exactly they want the nationwide network to look like.
Yes
Biden: Biden’s site says that he aims to “work with our nation’s governors and mayors to support the deployment of more than 500,000 new public charging outlets by the end of 2030.”
Sanders: To support a transition to zero-emission vehicles, Sanders wants to build “a national electric vehicle charging infrastructure network similar to the gas stations and rest stops we have today.”
Warren: Warren’s site says she supports a move to “invest in electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, including ensuring that every federal interstate highway rest stop hosts a fast-charging station by the end of my first term in office.”
Bloomberg: Bloomberg’s site says that he supports building “a network of charging stations along the highway system using tax credits and low-cost financing, aiming to place a station every 50 miles, and offer block grants to states and cities to develop urban charging networks. This would include enabling charging at interstate rest areas.”
Buttigieg: Buttigieg aims to “extend the EV infrastructure tax credit to build out charging infrastructure for interstate travel, multi-family housing, commercial and public buildings, and public spaces.”
Klobuchar: Klobuchar’s aim is to “make a significant investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.”
Yang: Yang’s site says that his plan is to invest “in EV charging station infrastructure in nonurban areas in order to ensure that there is complete coverage of charging stations across the country.”
The primaries kick off on February 3 in Iowa and continue all the way through June 3. The full list of primary dates can be found here.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
