California Governor Jerry Brown wants to ban all cars that use internal combustion engines in the the entire state of California, which would be good for anyone with 100 grand to spend on a car slightly bigger than a skateboard but not for the poor or the middle class. He says he wants to adopt the same policy they have in portions of China.
Governor Jerry Brown has expressed an interest in barring the sale of vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines, Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, said in an interview Friday at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The earliest such a ban is at least a decade away, she said.
Brown, one of the most outspoken elected official in the U.S. about the need for policies to combat climate change, would be replicating similar moves by China, France and the U.K.
“I’ve gotten messages from the governor asking, ‘Why haven’t we done something already?’” Nichols said, referring to China’s planned phase-out of fossil-fuel vehicle sales. “The governor has certainly indicated an interest in why China can do this and not California.”
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“To reach the ambitious levels of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, we have to pretty much replace all combustion with some form of renewable energy by 2040 or 2050,” Nichols said. “We’re looking at that as a method of moving this discussion forward.”
Since the 1970s, California has had the right to pretty much write their own pollution laws, thanks to waivers from the EPA. With President Trump controlling the EPA it is doubtful they could get a waiver but they do have other ways to force everyone to buy electric cars. California could set new rules on what cars can be registered in the state. They could also pass a law about what type of cars can be driven on their roads, but that would be difficult with drivers coming from other states.
Instituting such a policy in California would affect the entire car industry globally, due to the massive size of California’s car market. Over 2 million new passenger vehicles were sold and registered in the nation’s most populous state last year — more than than the entire nations of Spain, France and Italy.
California has had the right to write its own pollution rules since the 1970’s under waivers granted by the EPA. But it’s unlikely the Trump administration would approve such a plan, forcing California to take a different legal route.
According to Motor Trend magazine, Nichols says California is considering regulating the types of cars that can be registered in the state or have access to highways.
“We certainly wouldn’t expect to get a waiver for that from the EPA,” she told Bloomberg. “I think we would be looking at using some of our other authorities to get that result.”
China plans to end sales of combustion engine vehicles in 2030. Other countries like France and the U.K. plan to follow suit a decade later.
California has not yet specified a date to copy China’s policy.
With the size of the state and the limited range of electric cars, it’s not unfathomable that people could leave the state rather than have to cope with the high taxes, illegal immigration problem and now losing the ability to travel as you would like.
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