By David Shepardson
DETROIT (Reuters) – A top California official said on Tuesday he expects the Environmental Protection Agency to approve the state’s landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only cars by 2035.
The California Air Resources Board has applied for a waiver from the EPA under the Clean Air Act to implement its plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035, and has seven other waiver requests pending due to other environmental regulations.
“We have certainly made it clear that we expect EPA to grant these waivers,” CARB CEO Steven Cliff said at a Reuters Next conference in Detroit. “What’s important is that we can’t enforce a rule without that waiver.”
An EPA spokesperson said the agency “follows the prescribed process in the Clean Air Act when reviewing all waiver requests in California.”
California’s rules, which have been adopted by a dozen other states, require that by 2035, 80% of all new vehicles sold in the state be electric and no more than 20% plug-in hybrid electric.
Starting in the 2026 model year, they should reduce smog-causing pollution from light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2037 and require 35% of new vehicles sold to be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2026, rising to 68% by 2030 and 100 % in 2035.
Cliff said that without the waivers “we would have many challenges meeting our Clean Air Act requirements… All eight of these are intended to get us into federal clean air requirements.”
Automakers previously questioned the feasibility of California’s 2035 plans.
Other pending waiver requests in California involve locomotives, off-road engines, commercial port vessels, clean fleet and transportation refrigeration units.
Cliff added that the EPA is working on the waiver requests and has held hearings and public comments. “This is a super high priority for the governor. This is a high priority of my chairman to get these waivers,” Cliff said.
In April, a U.S. court upheld the EPA’s 2022 decision to grant California a waiver to set its own tailpipe emissions limits and requirements for electric vehicles until 2025. The EPA has approved more than 100 waivers for California over the past 50 years, Cliff said.
The EPA finalized new emissions rules in April, lowering the target for electric vehicle adoption from 67% by 2032 to just 35%.
