Two years ago, California announced a target of banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles starting in 2035. The most populous U.S. state is expected to make that official today with a new measure.
The move follows President Biden's signing of a federal climate change bill last week. The bill includes $370 billion in spending and tax credits for clean energy. The measure that will take shape in California was first put on paper in September 2020 by Governor Gavin Newsom. Now, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will proceed with the vote to implement it.
California won't be alone in doing this. Other states are set to follow suit with their own measures to reduce vehicle emissions. Twelve of them are expected to announce a similar policy soon, and five more may follow suit next year.
Right now, California already has a measure in place to encourage the sale of electric vehicles. The state requires that 12 percent of new models sold produce no greenhouse gases. The new requirements will increase that to 35 percent by 2026, 68 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.
In Canada, many are pushing for a similar measure to force manufacturers to send more electric vehicles here. This would obviously reduce waiting times.
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Not everyone is convinced that California will be able to meet its targets. For example, John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), told the Times the new standards will be very difficult to meet in California. He argued that “Whether or not these requirements are realistic or achievable is directly linked to external factors like inflation, charging and fuel infrastructure, supply chains, labor, critical mineral availability and pricing, and the ongoing semiconductor shortage.”
California was able to move forward with its plan after the Biden administration reinstated the “California waiver”, an exemption from the Clean Air Act that gives California the legal authority to set its own rules for pollutant emissions. Recall that former President Donald Trump had tried to eliminate that waiver.
Last year, Governor Newsom also issued an executive order directing CARB to ban the sale of new gas-powered equipment for gardening, which is known to be particularly polluting.
California is certainly one of the American territories most affected by climate change, and there’s general consensus there that the time to act is yesterday.
So, in principle, it will be able to move forward. However, 17 Republican state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to try to revoke California's waiver, so a reversal is not impossible.
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