January 15, 2023 – Wyoming Plans to Phase Out Sales of EVs - Several states here in the US, led by California, have set up legislation to block the sale of ICE vehicles by 2035. Sixteen other companies, including the world’s largest car market China, have also plans to abolish the sale of gas vehicles over the next 20 years. Wyoming is considering a different path. 

Bill SJ0004, titled “Phasing out new electric vehicle sales by 2035”, sponsored by Republican Senator Jim Anderson, has been introduced into the Wyoming State Legislature. To be fair, the bill doesn’t actually prohibit the sale of EVs it just encourages phasing out the sale of electric vehicles by 2035.

It claims the lack of domestic supply for critical battery materials as one reason. While it is true that we get battery materials from foreign sources currently, it should be noted that domestic sources are being developed. Consider the development underway now to exploit the lithium pumped up from the geothermal electricity generation plants being built in the area around the Salton Sea here in California.

Another thing quoted is the difficulty in recycling lithium batteries. While it is true that Lithium batteries could not be cost effectively recycled in the past, new technologies are being developed. Redwood Materials based in Nevada is already profitably recycling lithium batteries, and supplying materials for companies like Tesla and Nissan.

The bill also talks about the lack of public charging and the “massive amounts” of power generation required to build out an acceptable charging infrastructure. I took a look on plugshare and charging stations are indeed very sparse in Wyoming. At the same time, most people familiar with the gas station model don’t take into account the effects of people charging at home which greatly reduces the amount of public charging needed so this is almost certainly overstated.

The main reason for this piece of legislation is the impact that the move to electric vehicles will have on the oil and gas industries. Wyoming is heavily invested in the oil and gas industry. While it is the smallest state by populate it is the 8th largest producer of oil and gas in the nation. The bill sites the growth of electric vehicles as “detrimental to Wyoming's economy and the ability for the country to efficiently engage in commerce”.

Wyoming gets most of its revenue from the oil and gas industry which employes over 68,000 people, a significant proportion of the state’s 579,000 populate. It’s easy to see how the state feels threatened by the move to EVs.

The question has to be asked, are they really thinking this through? In 2020 Wyoming had a total of 191,332 vehicles registered. Contrast that with California which had 14,201,400 vehicles on the streets. Do the politicians really think that Wyoming banning electric cars would change their production plans while California is stopping sales of gas-powered vehicles.

Right now, there are some holdouts against going electric. Both Toyota and Honda have bet big on fuel cell vehicles and here in the US Stellantis seems to be moving towards electric cars reluctantly. But the pricing of vehicles is all about volume. If you build is small volume you have to forgo the benefits of scale, that means each vehicle cost more to produce and this increased cost is going to be pushed to the consumer. With EV prices falling as battery technology improves and sales volumes increase, eventually it will be ICE vehicles that will be the costliest.

Think also about gasoline and diesel. As more people move to electric cars, the demand for gasoline and diesel is going to fall. The price of crude oil will fall to the point where things like shale oil extraction will no longer be cost effective. People will be purchasing less and less gas and as this happens gas stations will begin to close. Even if Wyoming can create and industry that extracts, refines and retails gasoline and diesel it is going to be harder and harder to find gas beyond the state borders. For long distance travel people will end up having to carry all the gasoline they need to complete their trip.

The only way this will have an impact if other big gas and oil producing states, especially Texas, also move to ban EVs. Texas still does not allow Tesla to sell directly to customers in Texas even though the company is now based in Austin, so their banning the sale of EVs is a possibility.

It seems at the moment that the move to electric vehicles is inevitable so any move to ban their sale is only going to hurt the consumer in the long run. It would be more useful if the legislators in Wyoming could realize the gas vehicles are associated with a whole list of health problems and move forward to get its population ready to embrace the new model by adding to the charging station network in the case and allowing them to transition from working in the gas and oil industry to working in the green energy industry.

On January 18, 2023 Noel from Los Angeles wrote - According to a report by Joey Klender on Teslarati.com bill SJ0004 failed in committee and will not move forward.