There is no denying that saving the planet has now become a "trend".
Corporations around the world are now pushing an agenda of environmental protection and climate awareness in their marketing projects that hope to appeal to an increasingly more climate-weary consumer base. Cosmetics, home appliances, tech, and many more industries have all seen a massive increase in environmental protection ad campaigns, programs, and products. But perhaps the most drastic change of all in recent years has been in the automotive industry.
Since the diffusion of hybrid cars 20 years ago, the electric vehicle (or EV) market has grown tremendously. Electric cars are cool, modern, AND they help the environment. What's not to like?
Because of this, car companies around the world are now following industry leaders like Tesla in a giant push for a zero-emission future in the automotive sector.
The California state government has taken this as an opportunity to seriously expand its climate policy, as seen with the August 22nd passing of new regulations by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
In essence, these new stringent rules aim to completely ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 with interim targets set from 2026 onwards. New cars, SUVs, and small pickups sold starting from that year will be 35% EV, with that quota expected to increase to 51% by 2028, 68% by 2030, and finally 100% by 2035. It's also important to note that these new rules would have no effect on the sale of plug-in hybrids or used gas-powered cars after 2035.
In the words of CARB member Daniel Sperling to CNN, "this is monumental". And although that phrase gets thrown around a lot for any advancement in climate policy nowadays, this is definitely the case here. These new regulations stem from Governor Newsom's executive order in 2020 requiring the sale of new cars to be zero-emission, which hopes to greatly reduce the vast impact the transportation sector has on carbon emissions in California.
These measures are expected to lower greenhouse gas emissions from cars and small trucks by 62% between 2026 and 2040 and will have health benefits that will save Californians an estimated $13 billion in the next 30 years as well.
There is absolutely no surprise this is happening in California before any other state. Besides the fact that California has a special waiver from the federal government that allows them to be a bit more autonomous over its own vehicle emissions standards (which Trump tried to take away in 2019), it is also one of the states most crushingly hit by the effects of climate change and has in recent times been at the forefront of bold climate policy, a reflection of the Democrats' tight grip over the state politically.
It's commonly agreed that California was the best choice to lead this wave of new climate policy for the US. It is arguably the most prosperous and modern state in America today, and other "blue" states are set to follow California's example, with Washington expected to announce their new regulations this month, and states like Colorado, Minnesota, and New York to follow in the near future.
The reality though is that with any bold advancement in climate policy today, there are drawbacks. Firstly, the renewable biofuel industry has lost out. Geoff Cooper, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, remarked that "While we support the state’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, we strongly disagree with the notion that electric vehicles are the only way to get there". Additionally, smaller car manufacturers might have a tougher time than others reaching those interim targets with critical resources still being relatively scarce on top of an ongoing supply chain crisis. There is also the issue that gas cars are, right now, the overwhelmingly preferred option. Only 16% of total cars sold this year so far in California are EV, still very impressive numbers compared to the rest of the United States.
But for me, the largest and probably most underrepresented obstacle in the successful implementation of these targets and the ban by 2035 is the infrastructure. Right now, California has 80,000 public charging stations, a lot less than its goal of 250,000 by 2025. Furthermore, most of these are concentrated in the big cities, with small towns and low-income communities unable to access EV infrastructure, let alone afford an electric car right now.
Nevertheless, the idea is to finally set in motion a quick but smooth transition to transforming California's, and maybe even America's, highways into 100% emissions-free. Hopefully, despite the shortcomings in infrastructure or affordability, government intervention will push car companies to accelerate their development in order to take a large step towards a cleaner world.
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