Morning traffic along the freeway in Los Angeles, California, September 19, 2019.
Mike Blake | Reuters
California Clean Air Administration reveal a plan This week, the sale of electric and zero-emission vehicles, will eventually phase out new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, in a positive effort to combat greenhouse gas pollution. state glasses.
The proposal, if enacted by the California Air Resources Board, would require 35% of new passenger vehicle sales to be battery or hydrogen powered by 2026 and 100% net zero emissions within a decade. there. It also says that zero-emission sales must increase to 68% by 2030.
Shifting transportation to cleaner energy is a key component of California’s climate change plan, as cars, trucks, and other vehicles account for about 40% of the state’s pollution.
Electric vehicle sales in the state grew to 12.4% of total sales last year, up from 7.8% the year before.
The council is expected to vote on the proposal in August. At least 15 statesincluding New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, have adopted California’s vehicle standards on previous clean car rules.
Plans to follow Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order in 2020 that’s called to phase out cars with internal combustion engines within 15 years by requiring all new vehicle sales to be zero-emissions by 2035.
The regulation will not prohibit people from owning gas trucks or selling them on the used market.
“With Californians still suffering from the harmful effects of smog-forming emissions and the effects of climate change, which are expected to get even worse in the coming decades, the adoption of ACC regulation II is very important and necessary,” the state plan said.
Newsom, when signing the executive order, said the plan could limit the state’s emissions by more than 35% from cars, and that zero-emissions vehicles would “almost certainly” be cheaper than low-powered vehicles. by gas at the time the regulations commenced.
“Building on 30 years of work to electrify light vehicles in California, the market is clearly poised for a major transformation,” the plan said.
California, which is already grappling with wildfires and droughts that are worsening as temperatures rise, also has a goal of transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2045.
Some environmental groups called on the board to set even tougher targets for the transition to electric vehicles, arguing that the state should impose a rule to achieve 100% of vehicle sales. zero emissions by 2030, five years earlier than currently proposed.
“Time is running out before the world disappears in the rearview mirror,” said Scott Hochberg, transportation attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement.
“To protect people and the planet, California must free our streets from sewer pipe pollution as quickly as possible,” Hochberg said.
