Americans tend to believe that all technology is modern. Take electric cars, for example. A decade ago, alternatives to fossil-fuel-free powered vehicles were not even a whisper on the radar. As the Biden administration escalates its push for all cars to be fully electric by next weekend, most Americans forget there was a similar push in the 1960s.
And that battle didn’t end well for environmentalists then, either.
The earliest cars were powered by steam or electricity. Steam was generated through boilers fired by hand cranks and prone to explosions. Electric vehicles were powered by lead-acid batteries, which required a recharge after only 50 miles of use. Most people didn’t have easy access to electricity to recharge a battery.
Exploding cars and no access to charge them? That sounds familiar.
It was time for a revamp of the automotive industry, and the internal combustion engine burst on the scene. Significant oil reserves were found in the American West, and car makers improved gas-powered car technology. One key invention was the electric starter, eliminating the need to hand-crank the engine.
For decades, electric-powered cars were relegated to the dump bin of history. And that’s probably where they should have stayed.
But as gas-powered cars hit the streets, so did air pollution. Smog, a mix of smoke and fog, irritated people’s lungs and eyes and sometimes turned deadly. In the mid-20th century, cities, especially Los Angeles, were covered in this polluted air.
In 1949, smog with a strong ammonia smell settled over a town, and newspapers called it a “growing threat.” By the early 1950s, scientists figured out that smog was caused by exhaust from gas-powered cars. Lawmakers, especially in California, worked quickly to limit the fumes cars could release into the air.
In 1958, Nicholas Petris, a second-generation Greek immigrant, was elected to the California Assembly and joined the transportation committee. A few months later, the legislature told the state’s public health department to set air quality rules, including limits on car pollutants. In 1966, when Petris was elected to the state Senate, a California agency required new cars to cut certain pollutants in their exhaust.
Petris had spent his political career fanning the flames of fear over combustion-engine pollution. In 1967, he proposed a bill limiting Californians to one gas-powered vehicle per household. He later amended his proposed bill to ban all gas-powered cars within his state.
Most California lawmakers weren’t interested, so Petris asked his Senate colleagues to “study the issue” during a legislative break. This gave him time to plan his next attack on the industry. Petris was just getting started on his gas-powered vehicle vendetta.
In the following years, the California legislature came surprisingly close to following his idea of banning all gas-powered cars. Similar efforts popped up across the country and even in Congress. For a short time, Petris’s idea became a leading part of a growing environmental movement.
Ultimately, it failed.
But Petris wasn’t done yet. In March 1969, two years after Petris’s plan to ban gas-powered cars seemed to have hit a wall, he reintroduced a bill to the health committee, leaving the transportation committee out. The new bill proposed that no gas-powered vehicles could be driven on California highways as of 1975.
The health committee approved the bill in July of that year. Soon after, the state senate passed it with a vote of 26 to 5. The senators changed the bill, banning the sale of gas-powered cars in 1975 instead of banning people from owning them, and pushed it forward to a debate.
The debate before the Assembly’s transportation committee lasted seven long hours. With midnight approaching, Petris realized he would lose by one vote. He tried to change the bill, setting stricter emission standards instead of a complete ban, but it still failed.
Even though the bill failed, car dealers felt its impact. One dealer said people now view cars like a “dangerous drug.” Environmentalists still embrace this viewpoint today; it’s the backbone of their narrative.
Americans should understand that while the war on gas-powered cars isn’t new, it has failed multiple times.
But the effort to ban gas-powered engines wasn’t a total failure. Car companies made significant improvements in cutting emissions, and according to the EPA, cars were 99% cleaner by the 1970s. Cutting emissions is a priority for gas-powered car manufacturers today. Modern cars routinely meet or beat EPA emissions standards.
Take heart, America. If the Biden administration fails in its push for electric cars, we can revisit steam-powered vehicles. After all, Tesla has proven that a few exploding cars are no big deal.
