July 11, 2024

Ann Mesnikoff

Can your home be your gas station?

The oil industry is fighting the shift to cleaner transportation, but the climate crisis can’t wait and Americans are ready for the future.

Who is afraid of the notion that your home might be your “gas station”? The oil industry!

I’ve been noticing more and more EVs around my neighborhood – one in which street parking is the norm (garages or driveways not so much). This just means EV owners have to get creative when it comes to making their homes into their primary “gas stations.” Check out these pictures:

Most EV owners will be able to plug in at home and get the charge they need for daily driving. Having charging available at work if you commute by car, or along highways for road trips, or for multi-unit dwellings is all part of the network drivers will need to make the switch. As the CEO of Ford recently wrote in his blog praising EVs, “confessions from a lifelong petrol head,” 80% of EV owners charge at home, saving users an average 64% on fuel costs. That’s millions of people who are already free from going to the gas station. And as charging network growth accelerates, range anxiety will become a thing of the past.

The good news is that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act include provisions that are key to an EV future – whether that’s programs to build out the charging network or tax credits for new and used EVs.

And both the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) have, respectively, issued updated standards to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles, improving fuel economy for vehicles sold in Model Years 2027-2032.

So what is the oil industry doing about all of this? They are challenging both EPA’s and DOT’s standards in court.

New Standards are Not Perfect, but They’re an Important Step Forward

ELPC applauded EPA’s final standards when they were announced back in March as an important step. These standards, however, were not as strong as we and the environmental and public health community had urged during the rulemaking process. EPA opted for standards that automakers can meet without transitioning to electric vehicles. We also welcomed DOT’s updated fuel economy standards. They make gas cars cleaner and more efficient.

EPA chose the moderate approach, to ease Americans forward. The new standards increase choice and affordability, without requiring EVs as the only option. But, as the head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation said at the event where EPA announced these standards – the future is electric. The global market is shifting in that direction and the public is increasingly hungry for EVs, with or without EPA action.

Oil Industry Misinformation Fuels the Climate Crisis

The basis for the American Petroleum Institute challenge to these critical pollution cutting and oil saving standards is this: a misplaced claim that these standards will “effectively ban new vehicles using liquid fuels that American drivers rely on every single day.” There’s a lot to say about the rationale for suing over these standards, but their claims are simply not true. The new standards increase choice, by making cleaner options more available.

The industry is going even further, running ads in Midwestern states urging people to oppose a “Biden ban on gas powered cars.” But Biden proposed no such thing! Nobody’s coming to take away your gas car, you’re not banned from driving it or buying a new one. Misinformation is well-trodden ground for the oil industry, who lied to cover up the climate impacts of their products for decades. We cannot take them at their word.

In short, regardless of the timeline for EVs to become a greater share of the new vehicle market, the oil industry is worried about having its product displaced by electricity – not today, or tomorrow, but eventually. If America stopped progress at the whims of kerosene lamp-makers or carriage manufacturers, we wouldn’t get anywhere. We cannot stop the shift to cleaner transportation either.

Taking Climate Change Seriously with Smart Solutions

With the climate crisis causing havoc from this week’s heat dome over much of the US to forest fires, flooding, and erratic weather, this transition should happen faster than it likely will. And certainly, new gasoline-powered vehicles should guzzle less oil than older vehicles on the road today.

The oil industry is not alone in fighting EPA’s vehicle pollution standards in court. Some good news is that ELPC has joined partners to defend EPA’s standards. Stay tuned.