Gov. Lamont, watch out for those trucks!

Perhaps Gov. Ned Lamont needs a blind spot warning system.

Lamont did not see the size of the opposition, hurtling along like a tractor-trailer truck, when he tried to shift into the high-speed lane by proposing a comprehensive plan to place tolls on Connecticut highways. At the time he was fresh off his 2018 election to a first term.

The then-new governor had initially planned to take it slow. He campaigned on a platform calling for collecting tolls only on large commercial trucks, as Rhode Island was doing at the time. But after looking at the projected shortfall in revenues for transportation needs, Lamont pressed the pedal to the metal and went all in.

Soon the Democratic governor realized he was about to get run over. He could not generate the necessary support for the plan, even among the large Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate. His approval rating was sinking. He eased off, rolling back his proposal to the truck-only idea, but still lacked any solid legislative support.

Finally, in early 2020, he totally abandoned the proposal.

Politically, it turned out well for the governor. He did not have the toll issue anchoring him down when he successfully ran for re-election in 2022. As for the truck-only toll plan, that would not have worked out either. Rhode Island had to close the truck tolls when a judge ruled them unconstitutional. Rhode Island has appealed the decision, spending $9.3 million on legal fees in the process.

The governor was again startled by a loud horn recently when he steered the state in the same lane it had followed for years: again adopting California’s strict standards for passenger car emissions.

The state first adopted those standards, more stringent than federal regulations, 20 years earlier when Republican Gov. John G. Rowland was in office.

But those standards now contain something few could have imagined 20 years earlier — the requirement that, beginning in 2035, only new cars and light trucks powered by electricity can be sold in Connecticut. That demand to convert to electric vehicles, a move targeted largely at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, has undermined the bipartisan support the policy has long enjoyed.

“I don’t think we should be following the California standards anymore, their proposals are just too extreme,” House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, told reporters.

Approval by the legislature’s Regulation Review Committee, normally considered routine, was cast in doubt due to universal opposition by Republican members and erosion of some Democratic support. Lamont, fearing rejection, pulled the plan.

Lamont will instead ask the full legislature to formally adopt the California regulations.

As unpopular as they may be, both ideas — assessing tolls to pay for transportation infrastructure and pursuing a plan to phase out gas-powered vehicles — are backed by solid logical arguments.

By assessing tolls, Connecticut would collect revenue to maintain its highways from the millions of vehicles that pass through the state. Now those cars, unless the drivers stop to gas up and pay the state gas tax, do not contribute to highway upkeep. That expense largely falls to Connecticut taxpayers. This year the state did start assessing a highway user fee — meaning a tax — on large commercial trucks, but the $90 million it is expected to raise annually (and that may be optimistic) is a relatively small amount when it comes to the cost of maintaining a highway system. (The fee is probably another good reason the governor should not be pulling in front of any trucks, metaphorically and literally.)

Likewise, the state needs to get serious about reducing car emissions. Targeting 2035 as the date new sales move to electric vehicles is a reasonable target. The state must also demonstrate it will have charging stations and an electric grid sufficient to make that possible. In any event, what the legislature mandates it can also moderate. The legislature could push back the target date if, as 2035 approaches, the EV-only sales plan proves too ambitious.

But politics is seldom about the logic of a policy. It is often about emotional reactions and pocketbook issues. Telling folks they must pay a toll to travel state highways or mandating what kind of vehicle they must buy are tough sells emotionally and financially.

Eventually, residents will be both paying tolls and buying EVs. Electric vehicles are the future. Car manufacturers are making that conversion. And as more cars convert from gas, the gas tax will no longer be a viable option to pay for transportation needs. The solution will almost certainly have to be some form of toll collection.

Unless Lamont seeks a third term, he can leave it to a future governor to resurrect the toll idea. In the meantime, he needs to get a strong endorsement from the legislature with his plan to continue with the California emissions standards. Unlike tolls, he should not abandon that idea. But he needs to better sell it and make the case that Connecticut is ready for an electric-vehicle future.

Lamont may not always see that oncoming truck when he prepares to pull into the passing lane but, politically speaking, he has shown the ability to quickly adjust and avoid catastrophe. I suspect that will be the case in getting a car emissions bill through the legislature without too much damage to his popularity numbers.