This was one of four debates held during the USSU’s Green Yourself Week. The other four can be accessed here.

KEVIN MENZ
Associate News Editor

This discussion proposed the government put regulations on green cars — specifically, the emissions rate on new cars sold in the United States could not be higher than 120 grams per kilometre.

The opening side argued that considering the electric car was unfairly destroyed by the petroleum industry and that government subsidies greatly help the petroleum-automobile industry, the initial concerns regarding the cost of electric cars should be ignored: more research and government subsidies devoted to the electric car will lower its cost.

Switching from petroleum to electric-powered cars will inevitably improve carbon emissions and set an example for other countries to also take green initiatives.

The opposition, however, argued that government regulation and the switch to electric cars was not the best way to improve environmental practices. Rather, they argued that industry will naturally regulate itself to improve its environmental practices, that shutting down the oil industry will result in the loss of numerous jobs and that the high cost of electric cars is not in their manufacturing but in the high price of lithium batteries.

They concluded that a much better green initiative would be to improve bicycle options and public transit within North American cities.

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image: Flickr