by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
Maybe California should figure out how to fix our electric grid before we outlaw gas cars and trucks
California is rich in natural resources which once powered the state: natural gas deposits in the Monterey Shale formation; geothermal energy, abundant rivers and waterways such as the San Joaquin River Delta and hydroelectric dams; the Pacific coastline; 85 million acres of wildlands with 17 million of those used as commercial timberland; mines and mineral resources, vast farming and agricultural lands, and hunting and fishing.
Despite this abundance, in June 2020 the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved regulations to require automakers to sell more electric commercial trucks, with the ultimate goal of all new trucks sold in rather state to be zero-emission by 2045.
Under the new “advanced clean trucks” rule, the number of new zero emission electric trucks would increase each year beginning in 2024. By 2035, the zero emission rule has a target of 40% of tractor trailers, 55% of pickup trucks, and 75% of delivery vans. All government-owned trucks would also need to be electric by 2035.
Every car company in California will have to have an electric or hydrogen-powered option by 2024, with CARB currently aiming for net-zero emissions in California by 2050.
By November 2022, the Globe reported California’s nonsensical diesel regulatory rules threatened to worsen the already compromised supply chain – on top of a potential rail strike at the time, which would have ground supplies throughout the country to a halt.
