Remember high school calculus? The integral of a function represents the area under a curve, which is defined by the integrand, or objective function. In California’s clean car rules, the curve is defined by zero-emission vehicle sales requirements in 2026-35, and the objective is to maximize those sales, minimizing oil use and emissions.
The California Air Resources Board has proposed requirements that end at 100% ZEV sales in 2035, but start unnecessarily low in 2026 through 2030. David Reichmuth gets it part right in his commentary, calling on the Air Resources Board to increase ZEV sales requirements in 2030, but he and Air Resources Board need to apply their calculus lessons – the optimal solution requires maximizing the area under the curve, which means increasing ZEV sales requirements in 2026 and every year in between.
Better solution would be higher ZEV sales requirements in 2026
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In summary
The Air Resources Board proposed requirements for zero-emission vehicle sales start unnecessarily low in 2026.
By Ryan McCarthy
Ryan McCarthy is the director of Climate and Clean Energy at the Weideman Group Inc., a Sacramento lobbying and consulting firm.
Re “More ambitious rules needed to put zero-emission vehicles on the road“; Commentary, March 8, 2022
Remember high school calculus? The integral of a function represents the area under a curve, which is defined by the integrand, or objective function. In California’s clean car rules, the curve is defined by zero-emission vehicle sales requirements in 2026-35, and the objective is to maximize those sales, minimizing oil use and emissions.
The California Air Resources Board has proposed requirements that end at 100% ZEV sales in 2035, but start unnecessarily low in 2026 through 2030. David Reichmuth gets it part right in his commentary, calling on the Air Resources Board to increase ZEV sales requirements in 2030, but he and Air Resources Board need to apply their calculus lessons – the optimal solution requires maximizing the area under the curve, which means increasing ZEV sales requirements in 2026 and every year in between.
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