Two Democratic Senators from California are urging the Biden Administration to follow California’s lead and set a date for phasing out new sales of gasoline and diesel-powered cars.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein of California pushed the Administration to reinstate California’s authority to set greenhouse gas and zero-emission vehicle standards. The Senators also urge the White House “to follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles,” Senators Padilla and Feinstein wrote.
The Trump Administration revoked California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards that are more climate-protective than federal requirements.
“California and a group of automakers have developed the strongest car emission standards in the country, which have been adopted by 14 other states,” Senator Feinstein said.
Although President Biden has vowed to replace the almost 650,000-strong federal vehicle fleet with electric cars and ordered a review on the Trump Administration’s fuel economy standards, the Biden Administration has neither set nor pledged to set a date for phasing out new gasoline car sales. Related: Deutsche Bank Turns Bullish On Tesla’s Largest Competitor
In September 2020, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to ban the sales of new passenger vehicles with internal combustion engines from 2035 in the state’s latest push towards a cleaner energy future.
A report from Climate Action Tracker (CAT) showed earlier this month that the U.S. “is still a long way to go” to cut emissions in the transportation sector, which is the largest source of emissions in the country. The United States needs to reduce its emissions by at least 57 percent by 2030 below 2005 levels to fulfill its share of the cuts consistent with the Paris Agreement, while a target in the transportation sector compatible with the Paris Agreement would be 95-100 percent of sales of new light-duty vehicles in the U.S. to be zero-emissions at national level by 2030, CAT says.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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The revolution remains one of connectivity (over the air updates) and not one of Das Auto which has been around since the turn of the 19th into the 20th Centuries.
Long $unp Union Pacific Railroad
Strong buy