by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
Though still only in her 40s, Germany Kent is an award-winning journalist, activist, beauty queen, producer, business leader, philanthropist and author of the best-selling series of “Hope Handbooks.” She’s been around enough to have learned some of life’s great truths and is frequently quoted, this being among her wisest advice: “It is more important to go slow and gain the lessons you need along the journey than to rush the process and arrive at your destination empty.”
The great playwright and poet Molière famously pointed out the negative of the same theme: “Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.” Or as DaVinci put it, “Learn diligence before speedy execution.” Oh, how we wish politicians had that same ancient wisdom. Instead, they commonly rush headlong into requiring things that don’t work, mandating technology that is yet untested, and pushing policies whose long-term consequences are unknown.
At least three times in the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency has attempted to force compliance with an emission standard for which there is no known technology. But the best example imaginable is the worldwide rush, by governments on every continent, to force the manufacture and purchase of electric vehicles. Before there is a market for such vehicles, before the public is ready, before the technology is fully developed, before there is any supporting infrastructure.
Governments have pursued the electric car dream with various combinations of tax incentives, disincentives, grants, loans and even directly banning internal combustion engines by specified dates. Dozens of countries have enacted such strategies, including the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, India, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Australia and the entire European Union.
