California senators urge Biden to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars

California senators urge Biden to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars

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The letter sent Monday by Sens. Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla to President Joseph Biden urges him “to follow California’s example and set a date when all new cars and passenger trucks sold will be zero-emission vehicles”.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in September requiring all new passenger cars and trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
Car manufacturers are in the process of offering a much larger selection of electric vehicles to comply with the strictest environmental regulations worldwide and to meet growing customer demand for EVs. They also aim to save costs, as EVs have fewer moving parts and require less hours of work to assemble than traditional vehicles with an internal combustion engine.

The industry plans to invest $ 250 billion in vehicle electrification over the next three years, according to Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a commercial group in the industry. Asked about senators’ requests for a firm deadline to demand only emission-free vehicles, the trade group said it supports working with the Biden government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and “build a robust market for electric vehicles and resolve disputes. In progress . ”

But it also wants new national emission rules that are less stringent than those set by the Obama administration, which the Trump administration tried unsuccessfully to eliminate.

Plans already implemented

Some leading automakers have announced plans far more ambitious than those proposed by the industry’s trade group.

General Motors recently said it has an “aspiration” to sell only emission-free cars by 2035. Ford is also trying to change its car models in Europe to pure electric ones by 2030, although it expects to continue selling gasoline-powered trucks and vans after that date in Europe. It has not yet set a deadline for when it expects to sell only electric vehicles on the United States market.

“Proposals to encourage the production of zero-emission vehicles underscore the kind of conversation we need to have,” said a statement from Ford.

Senators said the Biden government should put pressure on the auto industry to commit to a difficult shift to electric vehicles.

“The auto industry has shown that it has the ingenuity and the resources to reimagine our transport systems in a consumer friendly way,” the senators said in their letter to Biden. “We ask your government to take advantage of this effort and make real progress in coordination with states, such as California, which share their goals of aggressively combating climate change by eliminating harmful pollution from the transportation sector,”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the senators’ letter. The Environmental Protection Agency said it supports measures to reduce vehicle emissions, even though, like the auto industry’s commercial group, it stops before endorsing a firm requirement for electric vehicles.

The new stricter emission rules “will play an important role in tackling climate change and advancing economic and employment opportunities,” the EPA said in a statement. “EPA is working with the Department of Transportation, California and other states, the auto industry, labor and other stakeholders to consider a range of views on how to set ambitious [emissions] standards.”

Stricter regulations

Among other measures taken so far by the new administration to reduce emissions, Biden signed an ordinance on January 27 promising to buy zero-emission vehicles for the federal government, including vehicles for the United States Post Office, which is in the process of developing a next generation of delivery vehicles.
California has only one carmaker, the former GM-Toyota plant in Fremont, California, near San Francisco, which is now operated by an electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA). Tesla is also the world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars, having sold 500,000 units worldwide last year.
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California has been a leader in establishing stricter environmental rules on vehicle emissions than the federal government, and a dozen states have followed suit. The Trump administration went to court to challenge its power to set these stricter standards. The auto industry argued that the most important was a single set of rules for the entire country. Several car manufacturers, including Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW, reached an agreement with California saying they would comply with stricter regulations than those prescribed by the EPA.

California senators said that “at the very least” the new federal regulations must follow the agreement between California and these automakers. They are also trying to grant California the right to set more stringent emission rules than those established by the EPA.

Most other traditional automakers agreed with the Trump administration’s efforts to deprive California of its right to set its own standard, although GM withdrew its support for this effort shortly after the general election.

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