Morning traffic makes its way along a freeway in Los Angeles, California, September 19, 2019.
Mike Blake | Reuters
California’s clean air agencies this week unveiled a plan to increase sales of electric and zero-emission vehicles and phase out sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 in a bid to aggressively tackle the state’s greenhouse gas pollution.
The proposal, if passed by the California Air Resources Board, would require 35% of new passenger vehicle sales to be battery or hydrogen powered by 2026 and less than a decade later 100% of sales to be net-zero emissions. The proposal also calls for zero-emission sales to account for 68% of total sales by 2030.
Shifting the transport sector to cleaner energy is a key component of the government’s plan to combat climate change, as cars, trucks and other vehicles account for about 40% of pollution.
Electric vehicle sales in the state rose to 12.4% of total sales last year, a jump from 7.8% in 2020, the board said.
The board is expected to vote on the proposal in August. At least 15 states, including New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, have adopted California vehicle standards to previous clean car rules.
The plan follows Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 executive order that required the phase-out of new internal combustion engine cars within 15 years by requiring all such vehicle sales to be zero-emissions by 2035.
The rule would not prohibit people from owning gas vehicles or selling them on the used market.
“As Californians continue to experience the deleterious effects of smog-forming emissions and the effects of climate change, which are expected to worsen in the coming decades, adoption of the proposed ACC II [Advanced Clean Cars II] Regulation is crucial and necessary,” says the state plan.
Newsom, signing the executive order, said the plan could cut the state’s emissions from cars by more than 35% and that zero-emission vehicles would “almost certainly” be cheaper than gas-powered vehicles when regulations begin.
“Building on 30 years of work to electrify light commercial vehicles in California, the market is clearly poised for massive transformation,” the plan reads.
California, which is struggling with increasing wildfires and droughts as temperatures rise, has also set a goal to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.
Some environmental groups have urged the board to set even tougher targets and accelerate the switch to electric vehicles, arguing the state should impose a rule to achieve 100% zero-emissions vehicle sales by 2030, five years ahead of the current proposal.
“Time is running out before the world as we know it disappears in the rearview mirror,” Scott Hochberg, a traffic advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Institute of Climate Law, said in a statement.
“To protect people and the planet, California needs to rid our streets of exhaust pollution as soon as possible,” Hochberg said.