Did 1990s Emissions Policy Help Make Us Vitriolic?

Today’s sociopolitical discourse can be ugly. In the automotive space, the us-versus-them vitriol frequently centers on electrification, pitting “eco-weenie coal-fired-EV lovers” against “selfish wingnut climate deniers.”

- Frank Markus

Our pals at Emissions Analytics recently published a cogent theory about how we got here, pointing to emissions regulations of the ’90s that were ill-informed, disingenuous, or both. Given the theme of this issue, let’s look at how these ostensibly eco-minded 1990s policies might have helped sow the seeds of today’s EV/ICE discord while grievously contravening their noble objectives.

Pull folks in either camp from their respective echo chambers, and most can agree on some established facts: Constructing and recycling different vehicle types produces differing levels of emissions. Certain scarce raw materials in EVs are sometimes unethically sourced, just as protection of national oil interests occasionally involves geopolitical conflict. Electric propulsion is highly efficient, but batteries have low energy density. Combustion is grossly inefficient, but this is compensated for by fuel-energy density. Most electricity isn’t entirely clean, and that which is clean tends to be intermittent.