Sacramento, California – Congress can prevent California from impleting its first rule in the nation that prohibits the sale of new cars with gasoline by 2035.
A Senate vote expected as soon as this week could end that of the nation more aggressive effort To make the transition to electric vehicles such as the administration of President Donald Trump duplicates in fossil fuels.
California constitutes approximately 11% of the US car market. Uu., Gave a significant power to shape purchase trends. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet scourge emissions.
The Congress controlled by Republicans is pointing to three exemptions from California that establish stricter emission rules than the federal government. The house voted to block them Several weeks ago, and the leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, said that his camera would make a similar effort this week, despite the fact that the Senate parliamentarian and the United States government responsibility office say that California’s policies are not subject to the review mechanism used by the Chamber.
Thune said that California “are an inappropriate expansion of a limited authority of the clean air law and would endanger consumers, our economy and the energy supply of our nation.”
California Gavin Newsom governor and state air regulators say that what legislators are doing is illegal and will probably demand whether the measure progresses.
This is what you should know:
The Environmental Protection Agency has allowed the State to adopt stricter emission standards for decades, and other states can sign these rules.
California has part of the worst air pollution in the country, and exemptions date back to efforts in the sixties and seventy to fight Smog in Los Angeles.
Triumph He rescinded California’s ability To enforce its standards during its first term, but the administration of President Joe Biden He restored it in 2022.
Newsom, a Democrat, announced plans in 2020 to ban the sale of new cars with gasoline by 2035. State air regulators formalized the rules in 2022, and the federal government allowed them to advance last year.
The rule requires that car manufacturers sell a growing number of zero emissions, trucks and SUV cars during the next decade. Electric vehicles would have to represent 43% of new sales by 2027, 68% for 2030 and 100% by 2035. People could still buy used cars with gasoline, plug -in hybrids or hydrogen vehicles.
California approved another rule in 2020 to eliminate the sale of medium and heavy service diesel vehicles, including boxes of boxes, semi -trailers and large pills. Depending on the class, zero emission trucks will have to represent 40% to 75% of sales by 2035. The Biden administration approved that policy in 2023.
The third regulation led by Congress would reduce Smog forming emissions of trucks. The rule renewed a test program to ensure that heavy -duty vehicles meet emission standards and establish stricter standards to limit contamination of nitrogen oxides and particles, which pose public health risks.
New York, Colorado and New Mexico are among the states that announced plans to follow the three policies.
Several automobile manufacturersIncluding Honda, Ford and Volkswagen, they signed agreements with California to follow some of the state’s exhaust pipe emission standards. But companies have not committed to complying with the 2035 mandate on cars with gasoline if it is blocked and did not respond to comments on the next vote of the Senate.
The National Association of Automobile Distributors urged the Senate to approve the measure.
“Prohibiting gas and hybrid cars is a national issue that should be decided by Congress, not a state agency not chosen,” wrote Mike Stanton, president and CEO of the group, in a letter.
The coalition of safe roads, which represents the towing and truck companies, said that the medium and heavy service truck rule is unfeasible and must be blocked.
“While the transition from combustion engines to electricity is well intentional, involuntary regulations threaten the road services for millions of American motorists,” said Josh Lovelace, national director of the group.
Thune, the leader of the majority of the Senate, said that the Nation’s network cannot handle California’s plans. It is a concern shared by other critics, which point to California’s fight makes several summers to maintain a constant power during a heat wave.
“Our already unstable electric rack would quickly face huge new loads of an increase in electric vehicles,” he said in a statement announcing the vote.
The Newsom administration argues that the State is on its way to building an electric and load infrastructure that can support many more electric vehicles. In general terms, California has an objective of the net greenhouse gas emissions from zero throughout the economy by 2045.
But the State remains well below what is finally needed. California has about 84,000 public cargators of electric vehicles in the state, but needs 1.2 million by 2030 to support the EV transition, according to the California Energy Commission. The Trump administration States directed earlier this year To stop spending money approved under Biden to help build charges of electric vehicles in the United States, more than a dozen states are demanding the federal government for the effort.
Newsom has also recently promoted the growing storage capacity of the state batteries. Neither the Commission nor the California Air Resources Board answered the questions about how much the State’s electricity network should grow to support the expected energy demand for the transition of the State. But the State has said that it needs at least four times more wind and solar energy to meet 2045 energy demands and that the network must grow to an “unprecedented rate.”
Timothy Johnson, professor of energy and environment at the University of Duke, said that most of the US regions can generate enough energy or add enough to meet the demand for EV load, but local electricity lines and transformers could overload.
According to the Board Air, other eleven states, more Washington, DC, have adopted the California plan to eliminate new cars with gasoline. Several more have adopted the previous standards of zero emission vehicles of the State.
But some of those states are already going back.
Last week, Vermont Republican governor, Phil Scott, stopped the application of the sales objectives of electric vehicles that follow those of California, saying that the rhythm was not realistic. In Delaware, Democratic governor Matt Meyer has said that he wants to rescind the mandate of Ev the State. Other states still seem to progress.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Matthew Daly and Alexa St. John in Washington; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; And Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon contributed.
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Austin is a member of Associated Press’s body/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a non -profit national service program that places journalists in local writing rooms to inform about undercover issues. Follow Austin in X: @Sophieadanna
