April 24, 2021
Banning the sale of gasoline and commercial vehicles from 2035. The governors of US states, including California, New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina, have requested in a letter to President Joe Biden. In fact, in the $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure plan presented by the White House, there is no phasing out of internal combustion engines, which is a necessary measure according to signatory states to fully implement the transition to electric mobility reinforced by a provision that provides for investments and quantifiable tax credits. With $ 174 billion to increase electric vehicles in the US car fleet.
The letter was reported by Reuters and also signed by Governors of Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington state and Rhode Island. Biden’s call is to set standards “to ensure that all new passenger cars and light trucks sold are emissions-free by 2035, with important milestones along the way to monitor progress.”
They added: “By establishing a clear regulatory pathway to ensure that all vehicles sold in the United States are emissions-free, we can finally clean the air and create jobs.” A path that is supposed to lead the country to ban the sale of heavy vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2045, according to the signatories of the letter. Among the requests in the letter are also the recall of increases in fuel-saving standards that Trump has abolished, funding for states to invest in recharging and fueling infrastructure and removing – or at least increasing – credit limits for electric vehicle taxes by the manufacturer.
The White House has not commented on the requests, but promoters of the initiative hope Biden will seriously consider whether setting a way out could speed up the transition in the transportation sector. The reference point remains in California even if the president is already on the campaign trail, declaring that he does not support the state’s phase-out program. Despite this, there is growing pressure on this front from Congress as well. In March, a group of 71 Democrats in the House urged Biden to put in place stricter emissions rules to ensure that 60% of new cars and trucks sold are carbon-free by 2030, while 10 US senators urged Biden to “fix a date.” “With his new sales, fossil fuel vehicles will be completely finished.”
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