The public also lost on this one owing the the waste of resources on a Serria Club Opium dream. The automakers lost money on research that all the experts said was going now where. The environment lost due to passing years without a pollution solution based on scientific reality. The CA economy lost owing to the purchase of electic vehicles by the state with taxpayer money.
The environuts are not hanging from lamp poles, I would say they got away with it, and achieved one of their incremental goals.