Greetings fellow Republicans! As a young girl in Baltimore, I remember learning civics. My teachers spoke in glowing terms about our Representative Government and how the governed elected their representatives and held these officials accountable. However, since moving to DE, I find that a Representative Government is more a pipe dream rather than a reality. For the past two years we have been under mandates by a Governor who believes he has the right to bypass our local elected representatives and continue to independently renew States of Emergency due to COVID, dictating to Delaware citizens. While the rest of the world has moved on, after 27 renewals of these States of Emergency, it appears that Governor Carney is quite fond of this power and has now decided to turn his decrees to another arena – energy! Without input from our local Representatives or Senators, the Governor has deemed that the Secretary of DNREC, an unelected and unaccountable bureaucrat, should be in charge of what we will be allowed to drive. Please note that NO bill has been presented. The General Assembly did not have a chance to debate or discuss this. Our Governor, who is term-limited and is likely to make a bid for U.S. Senate after he’s finished bullying us, is focused on adopting the California Standards for electric vehicles which will begin to take effect in 2026 – a mere 3 years from now. He obviously didn’t pay attention this past summer when California told their electric vehicle owning citizens not to charge their EVs because the grid couldn’t handle it during a heat wave. Nor did he pay attention to a message from his own Emergency Management Agency over the Christmas weekend when they explained that we were to cut back on electricity usage because PJM, the company from which we and 12 other states and the District of Columbia purchase electricity, warned that the grid would not be able to meet demand during the Christmas cold snap. Imagine if we were all dependent on the grid to go to work, the doctors, the store or our children to school! I guess this is just an “unintended consequence.” These are the things that bureaucrats blame all the time when they haven’t considered all the possible outcomes of their actions or “look past their noses”. As residents of a coastal area, consider what would happen if we had to evacuate Bethany, Dewey and Rehoboth due to a mid-summer hurricane. Think about sitting in your electric vehicle in bumper- to-bumper traffic on Rt. 1 or 113 or 13 watching your EV’s battery drain. Imposing Electric Vehicles on Delaware citizens because CA is doing it or it’s the mandate du jour or because all the “cool governors” are doing it, makes no sense. We need to address the issues of the here and now and invest in technology to address our future energy needs. Governing by fiat is not the answer – technology is. The latest advancement in fusion technology is particularly interesting and appealing. If the Governor is looking for a project, DE has some current issues that are quite severe. We are a Medically Underserved Area (MUA), as designated by the Federal Government. Perhaps our Governor could turn his efforts toward mitigating this problem. Our education system could use some attention as well. Delaware was 11th highest in spending for education, investing $15,639 per student. Considering the abysmal performance of our students in national testing, (31% proficiency in reading and only 29% proficiency in math), perhaps the Governor could address this. These are just two items crying out for intervention. There are others. If you are opposed to this governmental overreach please take action! Make some noise! Let your voice be heard! Kyle Krall is the Secretary of DNREC and his office will be writing the regulations that will be imposed on us. You can email him with your respectful comments at: kyle.krall@delaware.gov. You may also consider contacting the Governor at this link: Contact & Connect – Governor John Carney – State of Delaware. Marilyn Booker, Chair Sussex County Republican Committee