Wyoming-- Quintessentially Conservative... Quintessentially Backward & Frightened

Wyoming is the most politically backward state in the U.S. It borders six other states: Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. There are no real cities in the state but there are 5 settlements with over 20,000 inhabitants: Rock Springs, Laramie, Gillette, Casper and Cheyenne. It takes just under 3 hours to drive from Rock Springs to Salt Lake City, just a bit over 90 minutes to drive from Cheyenne to Denver, 2 hours from Gillette to Rapid City, South Dakota, just an hour from Laramie to Ft. Collins, Colorado, and a bit under 3 hours from Casper to the Transwest Ford showroom in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Wyoming residents may soon have to drive out of state to buy electric vehicles.

Reactionary anti-science flat-earthers (in other words, Republicans) used to freak out about energy-efficient light bulbs. A dozen years ago, Natasha Lennard wrote that “In 2007, little seemed problematic about the energy-efficient light bulb or the law signed by President George W. Bush, which called for the incandescent bulb to be phased out in favor its energy-saving counterpart. But that was before the rise of the Tea Party. Suddenly, saving the old-fashioned 100-watt bulb— which wastes most of the energy it consumes and costs households more in energy bills than the new model— has become a matter of personal liberty. And so, House Republicans on Monday will seek to repeal the 2007 law, which calls for the phaseout to begin in January 2012. The law has been dubbed "the light bulb ban" by activists on the right and has struck a Tea Party nerve. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann have all called it government intrusion par excellence. It essentially mandates that no new bulbs can go on the market after January '12 without meeting a new, higher standard of energy efficiency. Bulbs that don't meet the standard but that are already in stores won't be taken off shelves.

Now they’re going bonkers about gas stoves. Western Michigan crackpot Bill Huizenga “has introduced a bill in Congress that would preemptively prohibit the federal government from restricting or banning the use of gas stoves, though the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently insisted it has no plans to do so.”

In Wyoming, Republicans have something else in their sites: electric vehicles. 6 Republican state legislators want to ban them by 2035. I’m sure car dealers in Salt Lake City, Denver, Ft Collins, Rapid City and Scottsbluff are drooling in anticipation. “Half a dozen Republican lawmakers,” reported Stephanie Mlot, introduced a joint resolution "expressing support for phasing out" EV sales in the next 12 years. The bill— sponsored by state Sens. Jim Anderson, Brian Boner, Ed Cooper, and Dan Dockstader, and state Reps. Donald Burkhart Jr. and Bill Henderson—points to Wyoming's ‘proud and valued’ history of oil and gas production. ‘Since its invention, the gas-powered vehicle has enabled the state's industries and businesses to engage in commerce and transport goods and resources more efficiently throughout the country,’ the proposal said, citing a lack of existing EV charging infrastructure and ‘not easily recyclable or disposable’ batteries as grounds for a ban.”

Like nearly half of US consumers, however, the six politicians wrongly believe electric vehicle batteries are not reusable, when, in fact, they can be rehabbed over and over without reduced performance.

That fact likely won't change the minds of these legislators, who claim "the proliferation of electric vehicles at the expense of gas-powered vehicles will have deleterious impacts on Wyoming's communities and will be detrimental to Wyoming's economy and the ability for the country to efficiently engage in commerce."

"Phasing out the sale of new electric vehicles in Wyoming by 2035," the bill said, "will ensure the stability of Wyoming's oil and gas industry and will help preserve the country's critical minerals for vital purposes."

The move— a giant middle finger to states like California and New York, which recently announced state-wide bans on new gas and diesel vehicle sales— comes after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee proposed a $200 increase in EV registration fees to make up for lost gas tax revenue as more drivers switch to electric vehicles. At least 31 other states also demand extra cash from emissions-free drivers, ranging from $50 to more than $200.

"The United States has consistently invested in the oil and gas industry to sustain gas-powered vehicles," the Wyoming bill said, "and that investment has resulted in the continued employment of thousands of people in the oil and gas industry in Wyoming and throughout the country. Fossil fuels, including oil and petroleum products, will continue to be vital for transporting goods and people across Wyoming and the United States for years to come."

Change is hard, especially for conservatives. Ever hear of the Luddites? If only the Wyoming Republicans more more like them and less… reactionary. A few years ago, Evan Andrews wrote that “‘Luddite’ is now a blanket term used to describe people who dislike new technology, but its origins date back to an early 19th-century labor movement that railed against the ways that mechanized manufactures and their unskilled laborers undermined the skilled craftsmen of the day.”

The original Luddites were British weavers and textile workers who objected to the increased use of mechanized looms and knitting frames. Most were trained artisans who had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood. When the economic pressures of the Napoleonic Wars made the cheap competition of early textile factories particularly threatening to the artisans, a few desperate weavers began breaking into factories and smashing textile machines. They called themselves “Luddites” after Ned Ludd, a young apprentice who was rumored to have wrecked a textile apparatus in 1779.

…The first major instances of machine breaking took place in 1811 in Nottingham, and the practice soon spread across the English countryside. Machine-breaking Luddites attacked and burned factories, and in some cases they even exchanged gunfire with company guards and soldiers. The workers hoped their raids would deter employers from installing expensive machinery, but the British government instead moved to quash the uprisings by making machine-breaking punishable by death.

The unrest finally reached its peak in April 1812, when a few Luddites were gunned down during an attack on a mill near Huddersfield. The army had deployed several thousand troops to round up these dissidents in the days that followed, and dozens were hanged or transported to Australia. By 1813, the Luddite resistance had all but vanished. It wasn’t until the 20th century that their name re-entered the popular lexicon as a synonym for “technophobe.”

The Wyoming bill was introduced on Friday— while California and 14 other states are moving towards banning gas powered vehicle sales. The states agreeing with California include New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland and DC.

The population of Wyoming is 581,381, around the size of Fresno— although Fresno is growing and Wyoming is shrinking. Car manufacturers will follow California’s lead… not the Wyoming legislature’s.