Two U.S. Senators from California are asking President Biden to set a deadline for the stop-sale of new vehicles with an internal combustion engine.
With the U.S. administration currently looking at how to establish new vehicle emissions rules to undo the work done by the previous administration, Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein called on Biden “to follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles.”
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Reuters reports that the two senators also urged Biden to restore California’s ability to set its own emissions standards.
Last September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for the state’s air resources agency to require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California to be zero-emission by 2035.
While Biden’s 2020 campaign didn’t set a specific date to end sales of new gas and diesel vehicles, he promised to accelerate the electric vehicle take-rate and dramatically expand the charging infrastructure.
Back in January, Biden said that the federal government will replace its fleet of 650,000 vehicles “with clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers”.
The senators also said that Biden should take advantage of the deal California struck with carmakers such as Ford, Honda, BMW, and VW, which falls between the rules set by the Trump and Obama administrations.
“We believe the national baseline should, at an absolute minimum, be built around the technical lead set by companies that voluntarily advanced their agreements with California,” Padilla, and Feinstein wrote in a letter sent to Biden. “California and other states need a strong federal partner.”
