California senators ask Biden to ban the sale of gas-powered cars

California senators ask Biden to ban the sale of gas-powered cars

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The letter that Sens. Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla sent to President Joseph Biden on Monday urging him to follow California’s lead and set a date on which all new cars and passenger trucks sold are no emission vehicles.

California Gov. Newsom signed an executive order in September requiring all new passenger vehicles and trucks sold in the state to be emission-free by 2035.
Car manufacturers are offering a much wider range of electric vehicles to meet stricter environmental regulations around the world and to meet the growing demand from customers for vehicles. The goal is also to save costs, as cars have fewer moving parts and require fewer hours of labor to assemble than vehicles with internal combustion engines.

According to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group for industries, the industry plans to invest $ 250 billion in vehicle electrification over the next three years. Asked about the senators’ calls for a fixed deadline for only emission-free vehicles, the trade group says it supports working with the Biden government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a strong market for electric vehicles. and resolve the ongoing lawsuit. ”

But it also wants new national exemption rules that are less strenuous than those introduced by the Obama administration, which the Trump administration has successfully tried to remove.

Plans are already in place

Some leading automakers have announced plans that are far more ambitious than those proposed by the industry group.

General Motors recently said it has a “quest” to sell only emission-free cars by 2035. Ford also wants to move its car models to pure electricity in Europe by 2030, although it expects to continue selling petrol and trucks. after that date in Europe. It has not yet set a time frame for when it is expected to sell only electric vehicles in the US market.

“Proposals to encourage the production of emission-free vehicles emphasize the kind of discussions we need to have,” Ford said in a statement.

The senators said the government in Biden should use the car industry to commit itself to making a hard shift to electric vehicles.

“The automotive industry has shown that it has the ingenuity and the means to re-introduce our transportation systems in a consumer-friendly way,” the senators said in their letter to Biden. “We call on your administration to take advantage of this effort and make real progress in partnership with states, such as California, that share your goals of aggressively combating climate change by eliminating harmful pollutants 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 taking steps to reduce vehicle emissions, even if it, like the car industry trading group, stops meeting a fixed requirement for electric vehicles support.

New stricter emission rules ‘will play an important role in confronting climate change and promoting economic and employment opportunities,’ the EPA said in a statement. EPA works with the Department of Transportation, California and other states, the automotive industry, labor and other stakeholders to consider a variety of views on how to be ambitious [emissions] standards. “

Stricter regulations

Among other actions the new government has taken so far to reduce emissions, Biden signed an executive order on January 27 pledging to buy vehicles without exemption from the federal government, including vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service, which is a next generation of delivery vehicles.
California has only one automotive plant, the former GM-Toyota plant in Fremont, California, near San Francisco that is now operated by an electric car manufacturer. Tesla (TSLA). Tesla is also the world’s leading manufacturer of electric cars and last year sold 500,000 worldwide.
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California has been a leader in enacting stricter environmental regulations on vehicle emissions than the federal government, and a dozen states have followed suit. The Trump administration has gone to court to challenge its power to set the stricter standards there. The automotive industry argued what was most important was a single set of rules for the entire country. Several car manufacturers, including Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW, have reached an agreement with California, saying they will comply with stricter regulations than the EPA prescribes.

The California senators said the new federal regulations should “at an absolute minimum” follow the agreement between California and the automakers. They are also trying to give California the right to impose stricter emission rules than the EPA stipulates.

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

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