BOSTON, MA – Today, Marine Corps Veteran, successful business leader, and proven government reformer Brian Shortsleeve, Republican candidate for governor, called on Massachusetts to end its costly and unworkable electric truck mandate. The policy, copied from California, requires businesses to purchase electric trucks despite technology, infrastructure, and affordability challenges.
Last week, California itself scrapped its mandate, recognizing the devastating impact it would have on supply chains, small businesses, and consumers. Earlier this year, the Department of Environmental Protection announced a two-year pause in the enforcement of its requirement in a tacit acknowledgment of its unworkability after semi and heavy-duty truck sales in the Commonwealth plummeted by 99 percent.
Shortsleeve said Massachusetts should now follow California’s reversal and end the mandate completely.
“Even California, which invented the electric truck mandate, realized that it was a disaster for working people, and impossible to comply with as a practical matter,” said Shortsleeve. “Yet, Maura Healey clings to these unreasonable and unfeasible requirements. She never seems to learn that her costly and burdensome mandates always backfire by stunting the economy, driving businesses out of state, and costing us jobs. This is how we end up ranked dead last in private sector job growth.”
Shortsleeve pointed to the mandate as another example of Healey’s record of higher energy costs and overregulation.
“Massachusetts already has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, and Maura Healey’s mandates are a big reason why. This truck mandate will crush small businesses and raise prices on everything that are shipped in these big rigs, from groceries to home heating fuel,” Shortsleeve continued – “It’s time for common-sense leadership that respects taxpayers, lowers costs, and makes our state affordable again. On day one as governor, I’ll end these extreme mandates and put Massachusetts families first.”