California Plans to Ban New Gas, Diesel Cars by 2035

After a few years of maneuvering by climate-change activists and green-minded legislators, Governor Gavin Newsom of California issued an executive order [click the link to view the order as a PDF] on Wednesday directing the state to require that all new vehicles on sale there in 2035 have zero emissions. The California Air Resources Board, which sets the state’s vehicle emissions standards, will actually promulgate the eventual rule that Newsom calls for.

This executive order targets private passenger cars and trucks, as well as formulates a requirement that medium- and heavy-duty vehicles reach the same zero-percent target by the later date of 2045. There’s language that allows some flexibility for the proposals due to technological feasibility and cost-effectiveness.

It’s a prospective ban, not a retrospective one, meaning used fossil-fuel-powered cars can still be bought and sold in the state, and there are no restrictions on used vehicle ownership. However, it seems likely that there would be restrictions on the registration of new vehicles that don’t meet the eventual CARB standards.

The order also directs CARB to work with other state agencies to improve public transit and vehicle-charging/fueling infrastructure to support this move. This includes implementing the California State Rail Plan, improved transportation alternatives (particularly in disadvantaged communities), and repurposing oil-production facilities for more environmentally friendly uses.

California attributes more than 50 percent of its carbon emissions—and a vast majority of its toxic air pollutants—to the broader transportation sector. Implementing this order fully, according to the state, would reduce its total carbon emissions by 35 percent or more alone.

Addressing the affordability issue, the state intends to support the used-vehicle market for zero-emissions vehicles; what this support would look like isn’t clear, but tax credits are often used for this purpose.

California will join a long list of localities and countries that have pledged to ban fossil-fuel-powered vehicles to address health and climate change. The U.K., Norway, Paris (and France as a whole), and previously even California itself have proposed such bans.

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