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on July 09, 2020
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Air Quality Was Worse During COVID Shutdown Despite Far Fewer Cars on the Road, Data Shows

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

In some heavily polluted parts of the world like China and India, the economic shutdowns that resulted from attempts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus resulted in cleaner air. However, in Minnesota, the air was actually less clean during Governor Walz's shutdown than the previous five-year average. According to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) air quality was actually worse in Hennepin County during the COVID-19 shutdown even though traffic volumes were down around 40 percent. The first graph shows air quality data from March 16, 2020 through June 10, 2020....

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on June 10, 2020
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Electric Vehicle Costs Fall, But They’re Still Unprofitable

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy

Electric vehicles (EVs) have become a major focal point for liberal environmentalist groups and politicians who want to turn Minnesota into a Cold California by mandating California car regulations in our state, and pass legislation like the ECO Act that would force all Minnesota families to pay more for their electricity to subsidize electric vehicles. However, no matter how much the government tries to use a combination of force and subsidies to increase EV adoption in our state, they can't change the fact that most EVs are unprofitable. New research from Lux research shows that despite cost declines for EVs they are...

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on April 20, 2020
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Minnesotans Don’t Want California Car Mandates, Even If the Natural Resources Defense Council Does

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy, Transportation

On April 16, 2020 the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) wrote an article entitled "Minnesotans Want Clean Cars: The Oil Industry, Not So Much." The article, which mentions Center of the American Experiment by name, was meant to be a defense of Governor Walz's attempt to force Minnesotans to obey California car mandates for low emissions vehicles and zero emissions vehicles. However, the NRDC article made several easily-refutable claims that merit correcting, and these claims will be discussed below. In reality, American Experiment's polling has found that California's car regulations are deeply unpopular in Minnesota because the vast majority of Minnesotans...

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on April 08, 2020
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Walz Administration Plans to Push Ahead with Controversial California Car Mandates After Coronavirus Situation has Settled

Written by Isaac Orr
in Energy, Transportation

On April 3, 2020, the Walz Administration announced that it still plans on pushing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to adopt California's controversial car mandates for low emission vehicles (LEV) and zero emission vehicles (ZEV) in Minnesota before the end of 2020, but that the original timeline would be pushed back as a result of the Coronavirus. While American Experiment has been the leading critic of the Walz Administration's attempt to adopt California's car standards because it will violate the private property rights of auto dealers, increase costs for consumers by $2,000 to $2,500 per vehicle, force auto dealers to...

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