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- BBC Mundo correspondent in Los Angeles
August 25, 2022
image source, Getty Images
The state agency in charge of combating environmental pollution has described the day as “historic.”
California has become the first state in the United States to limit the sale of gasoline-powered cars.
The measure was approved this Thursday by the California Air Resources Board (CARB, for its acronym in English), the state agency in charge of combating environmental pollution.
and establishes that from 2035 all new cars sold will have to be electric or hybrid models.
The objective of the measure is to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the next two decades and those who promoted it are already talking that it will mean a revolution in the country’s automotive industry.
And it is that California is a great market for the sector, with 29 million registered vehicles.
image source, Getty Images
It will be possible to continue acquiring gasoline cars in the second-hand market or in other states.
The measure still needs the green light from federal authorities, but it is something that is taken for granted considering the environmental agenda of the Biden administration.
Gov. Gavin Newson, who proposed the initiative two years ago and asked CARB to develop a detailed plan, has called it “fearless and innovative.”
“This is a historic moment for California, for our partner states and for the world,” CARB President Liane Randolp said in a pre-vote appearance.
progressive implementation
The measure will be implemented progressively.
A) Yes, by 2026, 35% of new cars will have to be zero emissions, a percentage that must increase to 68% by 2030 and 100% in five more years.
Manufacturers who fail to comply can face fines of up to $20,000 per unit, according to CARB.
Cars of this type have already been gaining popularity in recent years in the state.
While in 2012 only 2% of cars sold were electric, by 2018 they already constituted 7% of new vehicle sales.
And today the percentage of non-polluting vehicles reaches 16%, with a total of 1.13 million registered in the state, between electric and plug-in hybrids. It is 43% of all vehicles of this type that exist nationwide.
image source, Getty Images
By 2035 all vehicles sold in California will have to be electric or plug-in hybrids.
It is also an upward trend in general in the country. According to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, 4.4% of all new cars sold in the US are electric, the highest percentage to date.
Now, with the new measure, the Californian authorities prevent thatwith the plan, to 2040 the emissions of greenhouse gases are cut in half.
They also hope to cut emissions of nitrogen dioxide, which plays a crucial role in the formation of the smogby 25% by 2037.
Car exhaust is California’s largest source of carbon dioxide, accounting for 40% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.
Although the ban does not imply that by 2035 gasoline cars will cease to exist in the state.
The measure will apply only to new cars, trucks and SUVs. It will still be legal to drive internal combustion engine vehicles, buy them on the second-hand market or in another state.
For this reason, some environmental groups have criticized the measure as not very ambitious.
“It’s not as strict as it might have been,” said Regina Hsu, an attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit organization dedicated to litigating environmental cases.
The states of Washington and Massachusetts have already said they will follow California’s lead on the matter, and other states are expected to do so as well. And it is that there are several states, including New York and Pennsylvania, which have adopted some or all of the emissions standards established by California so far, more restrictive than the federal ones.
But while unprecedented in the US, California’s It is not the first initiative of its kind at the international level.
The European Parliament in June backed a plan to ban the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles in the bloc’s 27 countries by 2035.
And Canada also has a mandate to achieve the goal by that same date.
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