EV mandates fade as California, others plot new clean air strategy
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California is reassessing plans to phase out gasoline cars by 2035, even as it vigorously fights President Trump over its right to do so.
Why it matters: California's strict emission rules, blocked by the Trump administration in June, had been a template for other states that share its ambitious climate goals.
- But as they now look to replace those rules, state regulators are signaling that requiring all new cars to be electric by 2035 might not be practical anymore.
- Affordability concerns, vanishing tax incentives and insufficient EV charging infrastructure make it unlikely that automakers can achieve escalating EV sales targets.
Catch up quick: California kicked off a new rule-making effort last month, with the goal of having revised state emissions standards in place by 2027 for 2031 model year vehicles and beyond.
- Mandating only EV sales by 2035 will be "a very active area of discussion," Lauren Sanchez, the new chair of the California Air Resources Board, recently told Politico.
Where it stands: California is suing the Trump administration for what it calls "illegal and unconstitutional actions" to revoke its waiver under the Clean Air Act to set its own emissions standards.
- Attorneys general from nearly a dozen other states joined the lawsuit.
- "We cannot enforce these rules at the moment," Christopher Grundler, deputy executive officer at the California Air Resources Board, told participants at a CARB workshop last month.
- "And so we are focused like a laser beam on what more can we do to fill this emissions hole we find ourselves in."
- Other states, including Maryland, Washington and Vermont, paused enforcement of their EV sales targets, too, and are rethinking their plans.
What they're saying: Sanchez told Politico that phasing out gasoline cars by 2035 "remains a very ambitious goal, and I am grateful ... that we now have the time to rethink creatively what that goal should be going forward."
The bottom line: Plenty of us will still be driving gas cars in 2035.
