Sen. Gordon Reacts to Stalled Special Session for an EV Mandate

State Sen. Jeff Gordon (R-Woodstock) issued the following statement in response to the news that there will be no Special Session to consider an electric vehicle mandate:

“Government works best when it listens to people. I have continued to listen to my constituents throughout the 13 towns of the 35th District. They do not want government telling them how to live their lives and conduct their livelihoods. They do not want mandates.

What one does matters, but how one does it also matters. Pushing an EV mandate is one thing, but the tone-deafness of the Democratic legislative majority to push through a mandate in a special session soon before the regular session begins was wrong. No public hearings. No public input. No committee meetings. The people of Connecticut would have been ignored and bypassed.

What people want is to know what is going on and to be given real opportunities to be involved. They want their voices to be heard. I agree.

‘People power’ prevailed and put the brakes on what was going on when my Republican colleagues and I let them know, and gave them a venue to be heard. The proposed EV mandate had no real plan, just a ban. The people of my senate district and of Connecticut rejected it. I am proud to have worked with people to get our government onto a better path to work toward good public policy instead of driving a political agenda. This process must include having people’s many legitimate, real-world questions answered, and concerns heard about how the extra electricity will be found, how reliable and secure infrastructure will be built out, access to public charging stations put into place, and how to pay for it all.

I support people having their individual choice about buying an EV based upon what they want or what they can afford. I support the growing EV market.

I support working together as a legislature that involves the public, experts, and all stakeholders so that we can create a realistic, reasonable, and responsible plan to address environment, climate, and air quality concerns. It is one thing to set goals. But it is another thing in the real world to create thoughtful and well-informed plans to achieve those goals. We must always keep in mind hard-working people, families, retirees, farmers, and job-creating businesses. This is what we need to do. I do it. Let’s do it and do it the right way.”