By Irina Slav
California state agencies will stop buying gas-powered vehicles from a number of carmakers after the latter joined the White House in their opposition to the state’s new, stricter emissions rules.
UPI reports that the ban will be effective immediately and it will affect the local sales of makes including Toyota, GM, and Fiat Chrysler to state agencies. However, the ban is not complete: it will make an exception for public safety vehicles.
“The state is finally making the smart move away from internal combustion engine sedans,” California Governor Gavin Newsom told CalMatters in a statement. “Carmakers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the losing end of California’s buying power.”
California is the single largest car market in the United States, but it is also the most environmentally conscious. Newsom has led a true crusade against the fossil fuel industry and emissions, which in September culminated in an executive order to advance the state’s environmental agenda, which includes generating 100-percent clean energy by 2045 and adding five million emission-free vehicles on California roads by 2030.
But the state also wanted to set its own emission limits as part of its efforts to become the greenest of them all, and this put it at even greater odds than it was already with the White House. Following the executive order by Newsom, Trump revoked California’s right to set its own emission limits, which led to the expected outcry, which was joined by another 22 states as well, which together filed a lawsuit against the U.S. president.
Meanwhile, most carmakers declared their support for the Trump ban with a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In it, the carmakers said the ban on individual state emission limits provided “vehicle manufacturers with the certainty that states cannot interfere with federal fuel economy standards.”
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com