The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced a plan to ban the sale of gas-fueled cars by 2035, as the state continues to fight against greenhouse gas pollution.
The proposal would require 35 percent of new passenger vehicles to be powered by batteries or hydrogen by 2026, and 100 percent of sales to be net-zero emissions less than a decade later if enacted. The proposal also calls for zero-emissions sales to account for 68 percent of total sales by 2030.
Californians can drive gas-powered vehicles and sell used ones under the proposal. The restrictions apply to new model cars.
“Emissions from motor vehicle engines hurt public health, welfare, the environment, and the climate in multiple interrelated ways. Reducing emissions of one kind support reducing emissions of others and contributes to decreasing the severity of their impacts,” the report reads.
Clean-air regulators announce this plan after a Sept. 2020 executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom to phase out gas-fueled cars to drastically reduce demand for fossil fuels in California’s push for more electric and zero-emission sales in the next few years.
The state currently accounts for about 11 percent of all new passenger car sales in the united states, the most out of any state. According to CARB, electric vehicles make up 12.4 percent of new car sales in 2021, while it was at 7.8 percent in 2020.
“Mobile sources are the greatest contributor to emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHG) in California, accounting for about 80- percent of ozone precursor emissions and approximately 50-percent of statewide GHG emissions when accounting for transportation fuel production and delivery,” the report reads.
According to CARB, ​the South Coast and San Joaquin Valley air basins are the only two regions in the country classified as ‘Extreme’—the worst category—for nonattainment of the federal ozone standard of 70 parts per billion (ppb).
“As the climate warms, ozone becomes harder to control and more particulate matter is released from wildfires. Reducing the emissions that cause climate change will lead to greater reductions in ozone from the efforts to reduce the pollutants that cause it, which are primarily oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and hydrocarbons (HC) from fuel combustion. These emission reductions will help stabilize the climate and reduce the risk of severe drought and wildfire and its consequent fine particulate matter pollution,” the report read.
The board is expected to vote on the proposal in August.
