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California Air Regulators Will Vote to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035

California Air Regulators Will Vote to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035

California will start its ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles Thursday, which was first announced in 2020.

California is driving off the edge of fiscal sanity and policy reason with as much joy as Thelma and Louise launched themselves into the abyss.

California will start implementing its ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles on Thursday, which was first announced in 2020. The ban is set to begin Thursday officially.

The rule is expected to take effect Thursday following a vote from the California Air Resources Board, and is the final step in implementing an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom nearly two years ago to phase out the gas-powered vehicles.

The rule will also set interim targets to help phase out the sale of internal combustion engine models: By 2026, it states, 35% of new cars sold must be zero-emissions vehicles — an amount that climbs to 68% in 2030. Currently, just 12% of new cars sold in the state are electric vehicles.

“The climate crisis is solvable if we focus on the big, bold steps necessary to stem the tide of carbon pollution,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said of the effort on Wednesday. “California now has a groundbreaking, world-leading plan to achieve 100 percent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.”

Frankly, the automobile and fossil fuel industry share part of the blame for this insane policy. For too long, they went along to get along, agreeing to jump through increasingly flaming hoops. Where are the ads defending carbon dioxide as a life-essential gas? Where are the visuals of the impact of lithium and rare earth mining operations?

As this policy is likely to go through, I see some dire consequences down the road. To begin with, there are already shortages of lithium, the essential component that makes up the lithium batteries that power electric vehicles.

The shortfall in materials needed to produce lithium-ion batteries shows little sign of subsiding anytime soon, as global demand for electric vehicles increases at a rapid pace.

So far global mining has not been able to keep up: There aren’t enough new mines and processing facilities coming online and new projects take years, if not decades, to develop, according to a panel of experts speaking Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“While everyone has net-zero goals, there is a disconnect between raw material supply and achieving that (electric vehicle) fleet,” said Scott Yarham, associate regional pricing director for metals at research firm S&P Global. “Demand is exploding. There’s no two ways about it.”

Next, electric cars require electricity to charge the batteries. In California, this can be problematic.

California has urged residents to cut power use as a searing heatwave settles over the state and stretches power supplies to a breaking point, in the latest sign of extreme weather conditions in the US west.

Temperatures in the most populous state are forecast to climb to well above 100F (38C) during the afternoon.

To prevent power outages, state officials asked residents and businesses to turn off lights and appliances and preset their thermostats to 78F (26C), especially during the critical hours between 4 and 9pm local time when demand typically peaks and solar power generation beings to ebb.

Finally, there are technical issues related to the end-of-life stage the batteries will ultimately hit. Electric vehicles lose a lot of their green luster at that point.

The battery pack of a Tesla Model S is a feat of intricate engineering. Thousands of cylindrical cells with components sourced from around the world transform lithium and electrons into enough energy to propel the car hundreds of kilometers, again and again, without tailpipe emissions.

But when the battery comes to the end of its life, its green benefits fade. If it ends up in a landfill, its cells can release problematic toxins, including heavy metals. And recycling the battery can be a hazardous business, warns materials scientist Dana Thompson of the University of Leicester. Cut too deep into a Tesla cell, or in the wrong place, and it can short-circuit, combust, and release toxic fumes.

These are just three of the many consequences Californians will face long after policymakers and regulators get done congratulating themselves for their environmental moral superiority. There will be so many more.

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Comments

taurus the judge | August 25, 2022 at 11:11 am

I’m actually looking forward to this.

Talk about the proverbial “painting yourself into the corner”

Sadly, this is what its going to take to expose the fallacy and physical impossibility of “green energy”.

It will implode on itself

    sfharding in reply to taurus the judge. | August 25, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    I am too. I’m actually a little disappointed that full implementation doesn’t come until 2035. Heck I might not live that long, and I cannot bear the thought of missing out on watching California implode in real time. I have a large stash of popcorn at the ready, too. So if it’s not too much to ask Gov. Newsom, go big, go bold, and move that deadline forward. Then I could spend this winter watching Germans freeze, and maybe next summer watch California melt down. Mmmm, can smell the popcorn now.

    Sadly, MA and several other states copy CA emission legislation (even though the ecological/geological/climate is different), so I am expecting them to blindly copy CA.

    Remember: they pushed those lemmings off the cliff….

    Yes, it will: but that’s the idea!!

nordic prince | August 25, 2022 at 11:22 am

WHAT “climate crisis”?

There is no “climate crisis.”

There is a power-hungry set of elites, though, that want to make the rest of us serfs, though, and that’s what this is all about.

The Road to Serfdom.

    Massinsanity in reply to nordic prince. | August 25, 2022 at 1:31 pm

    Don’t discount hatred for fossil fuel companies and the people who work for them. They tend to be in red states and vote R.

“The climate crisis is solvable if we focus on the big, bold steps necessary to stem the tide of carbon pollution,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said of the effort on Wednesday. “California now has a groundbreaking, world-leading plan to achieve 100 percent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.”

California, welcome to Sri Lanka.
Hairgel doesn’t care, he’ll be well gone by then.

Californians are assisting by helping U-Haul move all their gas-powered trucks out of the state now.

California has chosen the form of its Destructor.

UnCivilServant | August 25, 2022 at 11:28 am

The only way those numbers can be reached is to end automobile sales outright.

Probably their preferred outcome.

    “Probably their preferred outcome.”

    Of course. That’s what it has always been. Cars and guns represent freedom. Take those away and you have no freedom.

    Electric cars have never been about the environment and the cali BS is just that BS. It will never happen. Not ever. It will simply provide a bit of money laundering for the political class.

    Conservative Beaner in reply to UnCivilServant. | August 25, 2022 at 7:02 pm

    Yes the whole idea is not getting you into an electric vehicle but keeping from owning a personal vehicle which gives you freedom of movement.

    The only way those numbers can be reached is to end automobile sales outright.

    Plus an end to the related service and manufacturing industries. I wonder if they’ve bothered to figure out how much this plan will tank sales, income, and gasoline excise taxes. Many billions of dollars annually I should think.

I expect Dr Evil to pop up at any moment with a North America-sized space umbrella that will keep us in darkness unless we pay him one million dollars.
Why not? The shit is happening because of “make believe” mentality.

This is hilarious. Looks like California is going full “Thelma and Louise”.

California can’t even produce enough electricity today. They have regular rolling blackouts. Imagine what will happen when millions more EVs are on the roads there, and they’ve shuttered even more of those evil fossil fuel and nuke plants.

OMG this will be fun.

I wonder where the gas revenue from the gas tax is going to come from. I think there is a revenue financial model that is missing in this picture.

    State mandated GPS mileage tracking and tax on miles driven; also they will mandate a remote disable function for the car. The trend is also for the car “owner” to have to pay ongoing subscription fees for the software that allow the car to actually function; that will also be taxed.

      WTPuck in reply to SHV. | August 25, 2022 at 1:47 pm

      Pretty soon we’ll look like Cuba. Does anyone remember how to work on a carburator?

        Barry in reply to WTPuck. | August 25, 2022 at 2:16 pm

        Raises hand.
        Carbs are easy. FI is even easier. Both require fossil fuels, something the political class in this country want to eliminate as a part of their plan to eliminate freedom.

This is great!

And coal plants and other fossil fuels that generate the electricity to power the electric vehicles will be banned simultaneously, right?

Right?

I was way ahead of the curve in mowing my acre of grass with a scythe rather than a mower starting 20 years ago. Expertise that will pay off!

This is actually a devious plan to spread California liberals throughout the country to capture 100% of all elected Federal positions.

If electricity is generated by fossil fuels, does this really change anything?

These people are among the stupidest on the planet.

It will be worse for the environment in the end, when all the resources are accounted for.

Wesley Mouch approves.

Washington state banned the sale of new cars after 2030 earlier this year. Inslee vetoed a similar bill last year because it contained a provision to charge drivers by the mile for driving on state roads. I don’t know if that means roads with a WA designation, or any road in WA state. Either way, it was lunacy.

See https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2022/03/washington-bans-sale-of-new-gas-powered-vehicles-after-2030/

    If neighboring states were smart (don’t laugh), they’d allow people of Washington and California to register their gas cars in said neighboring states. Those neighboring states would make money and California and Washington would be limited at least to some degree over said gas cars.

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to The Political Hat. | August 25, 2022 at 2:53 pm

      That won’t work. States with high license fees encourage the reporting of out of state plates on the cars of neighbors.

        And yet, Montana continues to do a booming business titling cars, boats, and RVs “owned by Montana LLCs.” So much so that the delay to get titling paperwork processed is currently running close to three months in my county.

        Since these cars are technically owned by a Montana businesses, they don’t pay sales taxes in the state where they are being used, and they can legally run Montana plates.

        That’s a sad reality, Griz. When we drive out to our IL home, our WA plate car is conspicuous parked in the drive, and gets a few rubber-necker stares. We’ve made it a point to tell the city offices and police that we remain WA residents – and have told a few of the neighbors that we obviously pay all IL taxes except the car tabs. So the few neighbors we know well can educate the complainers. There is a tax filing advantage for us, but the biggest reason for not changing residency, is court duty – the court clerk is family and threatens jury duty if we ever change uniforms. Mostly people don’t care – don’t notice – but it only takes 1 KAREN to create problems. There is one person who has suggested it’s not fair that we own a house there and only use it 25 weeks a year. She’s a real estate agent and has approached us a few times about selling to her client/friend who would be there 52 weeks a year. If ever we get into trouble there for residency / licensing, I know where to hunt the rat.

I think we should ban regulators. After all, they over-produce CO2.
Definitely should be true for politicians.

number crunch | August 25, 2022 at 1:14 pm

CA has a ban on pre-2010 diesel powered trucks starting on January 1, 2023. Since the average age of a semi is 16 years, over half the trucks on the road cannot run in CA after the new year including 76K registered in CA. Since there’s already a transportation bottleneck with shortage of semi trucks out of CA ports, expect even more shortages as our Transportation Secretary is unawares so we’ll feel the effects nationwide.

High taxes, high cost of living, high crime, no water, no electricity and now no food or goods. Newsom doesn’t want the poor and middle class living in CA and he’s not shy about it yet he feels that he’s a good candidate for President. Jeez.

    The Gentle Grizzly in reply to number crunch. | August 25, 2022 at 2:18 pm

    Also expect less talk and more do about that container port in Baja.

    Since many if not most if not all of those diesel trucks are engaged in literal interstate commerce that further effects interstate and international commerce elsewhere, this is one area where Congress has the clear power to smack down California.

    Of course, even if the GOP eventually gets Congress and the Presidency, I don’t expect them to waste their time on doing important stuff when there’s political snake oil to sell.

    When is California going to follow New York and ban Republicans?

welcome to Havana California with all the old cars on the streets

When pipe dreams clash with reality, Californians will have to go out of state to get their cars charged.

So is this democracy? Some board nobody voted for gets to decide the law and not the elected lawmakers?

forget the “emissions” argument–without the infrastructure to support electric vehicles(widespread charging stations / centers / hubs, etc.), eliminating the sale (and presume the subsequent/existing operation) of internal combustion vehicles in ca is ridiculous

to construct a practical, sustainable infrastructure network to support an all-electric vehicle landscape you’re talking about an undertaking similar in scale to the interstate highway system in this country–ca may indeed have the votes (legitimate or likely otherwise) but they sure as hell don’t have the $$$s

which leaves the feds(we taxpayers)–nonsense

tell them to park their cars and give ’em a skateboard

I’m not sure you would actually implement such a plan, the auto makers don’t control what is actually sold, they sell to dealer who sells it to a consumer. Does California create some system where a fixed number of cars imported into the state is set per year and a certain percentage must be of each type? Does a manufacturer get some type of quota?
Would a seller hold back sales from one year to another because they were above or below a quota number?
Do dealers use some type a system where they call a new gas car a rental for a very short period of time and then rebrand it as a used vehicle after one rental or maybe put it in the loaner fleet for a day and then sell it as used.
How does this apply to leased vehicles?

Maybe someday, far in the future, when they have solved all their other problems, they might consider doing something about crime.

There is no man made climate crisis.
There is no natural climate crisis.
We have the same climate we have always had, ever changing,

I’m not opposed to electric cars, sans government rebates, etc. They are nice play toys for the wealthy, like boats and airplanes.

What they are not, at this point in time*, are serious tools for travel.

The push for electric is a push for personal vehicle elimination. Everything the left (that includes the republicans) does is about eliminating freedom. Everything I do is to promote freedom and liberty. The left wants control of your reproduction, the home/apartment/cave you live in, your movement (take the government provided transport) allowed only when they say, and they demand 100% of your work putput.

Sounds just like slavery doesn’t it?

*give us a 600 mile battery, with the AC/heat on, at a reasonable weight and replacement cost, and the equation changes

    henrybowman in reply to Barry. | August 25, 2022 at 2:58 pm

    “*give us a 600 mile battery, with the AC/heat on, at a reasonable weight and replacement cost, and the equation changes”

    Everybody talks about range, range, range. Nobody talks about recharge time.
    My F-250 gets 350 miles on one tank, towing an RV. But I can recharge it in 15 minutes and go 1,000 miles in a day, if I choose. Do that with a battery-burner.

      alaskabob in reply to henrybowman. | August 25, 2022 at 3:17 pm

      And as the test of the Ford Lightening with the GMC Sierra showed…. the Ford was supposed to go about 130 miles but almost didn’t make it to the charging station after less than 50 while towing a trailer.

Alexander Scipio | August 25, 2022 at 3:48 pm

This will be fun to watch, They’ll outlaw gas cars, gas stations will disappear, since tourism is in their top 3 economic generators and no one with a gas car will be able to come anymore, and the rental companies won’t be able to buy the thousands of EVs they’ll need, the tourism industry will go broke next. I’m an IT contractor remote from CA and onsite one week each month. I won’t be able to go there. LOTSA contractors just at my company are similar. Economic suicide in pursuit of a hoax. Where’s my popcorn?

Subotai Bahadur | August 25, 2022 at 3:56 pm

Let me toss out another bit of reality that the TWANLOC Leftists ignore. All production depends on supply chains. The goods that make up the components of goods that are eventually sold retail have to come from somewhere. How are those things moved from point A to point B [and then to a retail point C]? Trucks, both gasoline powered and diesel powered are internal combustion. Hmm. Then there is the matter of interstate transport by train. Trains do not run on Mother Gaia’s wood and steam. Trains are diesel powered. As noted before, diesel is internal combustion.

Now I admit that more and more I am doubting that we will make it to 2035 as the country we were and should still be. So I have less and less of a problem wishing that a blockade be imposed either along I-5, or if you prefer 50 miles inland from the mean high tide line along the coast. Nothing and no one goes either way. International trade will sort itself out as California does not have the only container ship ports in the country.

Subotai Bahadur

    henrybowman in reply to Subotai Bahadur. | August 25, 2022 at 9:00 pm

    Worst is that farming lives and dies on diesel.
    No amount electric bullshit will ever work there.
    When 24-hour harvest time is here, recharge time had better be close to zero.

Soon Californians will be travelling to the Nevada border to play the slot machine while recharging their cars. Both are considered gambling in California.

At the rate the Communists (and that is what they are) are destroying California, by 2035, California will have a standard of living comparable to Venezuela.

“Demand is exploding.”

So are some electric cars.

    jb4 in reply to alien. | August 25, 2022 at 8:46 pm

    In February, $400M of high end VW-owned cars sunk an ocean transport ship with battery fires that could not be put out. All we need is for a few well-publicized battery fires in garages burning down homes and EV sales are going to have some problems.

Where are they going to get electricity? I wouldn’t let them purchase outside of their own geopolitical confines. And even then, they would not be permitted to purchase more than the amount which they are able to generate from their own nuclear capabilities. Moreover, I would forbid the export of their capacity beyond their own borders.

All that this idiotic policy pronouncement accomplishes is strengthening the regime in communist China, while impoverishing working-class Americans even more.

Just another day at the office for the vile, stupid and fiscally illiterate Dumb-o-crat apparatchiks.

California is my home state but I left for the east coast in 96 due to business. The state started its slide when Reagan left as governor. Since then many of the state’s energy production has been shut down and the state’s electrical grid needs updating. The Wind Farms and Solar Farms do not produce enough power. California gets power from other states today. The state goes through brownouts now and if you add massive EVs then it will get much worse. There is many issues with EVs and people buying them so I doubt it will happen.

I live in CA … it’s positively awful … everything here has turned into a CF … and this bright idea will be the ne plus ultra of them all.

Central planning…also known as COMMUNISM.

This stinks of the WEF. As I’ve said for a while, it was never about putting people into electric cars. It was always about eliminating private transportation entirely, and by extension the unrestricted and unmonitored movement of the citizens. You will only go where and when the government allows.

The UK’s climate plan contemplates eliminating airports, only allowing government and private aviation. The proles basically won’t be allowed to travel internationally anymore.

Half the US has gone retarded. In California, it’s more like 3/4.