California's legal authority to set auto pollution and mileage rules that are tighter than federal standards was restored on Wednesday by the Biden administration.
The return of one of California's most powerful environmental prerogatives could have a significant impact on the type of cars Americans will drive in the coming decade, the amount of gasoline the nation consumes and its ability to reduce tailpipe emissions that contribute heavily to climate change.
California, the most populous state and fifth largest economy, has been able to influence automobile makers and set the pace for the rest of the country. The California rules have been adopted by 17 other states and the District of Columbia. California requires all states to sell zero-emissions vehicles after 2035.
California's actions become crucial to Mr. Biden's push to accelerate the transition away from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles.
California has longstanding authority to lead in addressing pollution from cars and trucks, according to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. For years, an approach that helped advance clean technologies and cut air pollution for people not just in California, but for the U.S. as a whole, has been reintroduced.
California's leaders plan to write a rule that will phase out the internal combustion engine and replace it with zero-emission batteries.
The move by the Biden Administration to correct the wrongs of the Trump administration was praised by the governor. California looks forward to working with the Biden Administration to make a zero-emission future a reality.
In the United States, electric vehicles make up 4% of new car sales.
The moves come as many of the world's largest automakers, which for years opposed federal rules to cut tailpipe pollution, have now publicly embraced a future built on electric vehicles.
John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for automotive innovation, said in a statement that automakers are committed to working with California and other states to ensure vehicles are efficient, clean, and affordable for all.
Even though Mr. Trump eliminated California, five auto companies signed a deal with the state in which they agreed to follow a tighter emissions standard.
One of Mr. Trump's biggest moves to raze climate change policies was the revocation of California's ability to set its own tailpipe emissions limits. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, accounting for 29 percent of the nation's total emissions.
According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, nations would have to stop the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 to keep average global temperatures from increasing. Scientists say Earth faces irreversible damage. Since the late 1800s, the planet has warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius.
Congress gave California authority to set tailpipe standards that were tougher than federal limits in order to address its problem with smog.
President Barack Obama set federal auto emissions standards based on the California rule in 2009, requiring passenger vehicles to reach an average mileage of 51 miles per gallon by 2025, up from 38 miles per gallon at the time.
The auto industry will have to ramp up electric vehicle production until Mr. Trump repeals the rules in 2020. The Trump administration is revoking the Federal Waiver on emissions in order to produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER.
There was no more important fight for us, in terms of addressing climate change, when he clashed with Mr. Trump over the waiver. You are not serious about climate change unless you are serious about transforming the transportation sector.
Late last year, Mr. Biden enacted a federal standard that strengthened the Obama-era auto pollution rule. It requires new vehicles to average 55 miles per gallon. It would prevent the release of 3.1 billion tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide through the year 2050.
Mr. Biden wants half of all new vehicles sold in the country to be electric by the year 2030. The forthcoming California rule is likely to affect the new tailpipe emissions rule that the E.P.A. is writing.
"For the past 50 years, this is huge," said Margo Oge, an expert on electric vehicles who headed the E.P.A.'s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. The California order that all cars sold in the state should be E.V.s by 2035 is reinforced by this. It supports Biden's executive order that half the cars sold in the nation will be E.V.s by the year 2050. It helps a lot.
Fossil fuel companies and Republican states are expected to fight back against all new rules designed to cut oil use and promote electric vehicles, with coordinated lawsuits against each of Mr. Biden's policies.
The president of the Institute for Energy Research said that states that don't feel that they should be forced into the state of California would be the primary litigants.
The Republican attorneys general of 15 states filed a suit against the Biden administration, claiming that it exceeded the authority granted to the federal government under the Constitution. The group is expected to try to block any additional rules that would lower the demand for oil or promote electric vehicles.
At a time when American gas prices are skyrocketing at the pump, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows again the need for energy independence, Biden chooses to go to war against fossil fuels. I will not allow the federal government to ruin our economy.
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