EV advocates urge EPA to grant California's Clean Air Act waiver; opposition persists

WASHINGTON—California's top environmental regulator Jan. 10 urged the EPA to quickly approve the state's plan to phase out sales of new gasoline-only cars and light trucks by the 2035 model year.

"California's long-standing authority to set standards that reduce emissions for motor vehicles remains critical to its ability to protect public health and ensure a sustainable climate," Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said during a virtual public hearing.

"This authority," she continued, "preserved through bipartisan congressional support for over five decades ensures all the people of California and the states that have chosen its standards will breathe clean air."

The hearing comes after CARB in May asked the EPA to approve a federal waiver under the Clean Air Act, allowing the state to enforce its Advanced Clean Cars II regulation.

California adopted the rules in 2022 but is still waiting for the EPA to grant the waiver. The EPA will take public comments on the waiver request through Feb. 27.

Under California's regulation, auto makers would need to sell increasing percentages of zero-emission vehicles, such as battery-electric models. The ambitious plan would require ZEVs to make up 35 percent of new-vehicle sales by the 2026 model year, 68 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035. Auto makers can meet up to 20 percent of their sales requirements with plug-in hybrid vehicles, according to CARB.

At least 12 other states, plus Washington, D.C., have adopted the California rules.

Roughly 25 percent of new vehicles sold in California through the third quarter of 2023 were zero-emission or plug-in hybrid models, according to CARB. That's up from about 19 percent in 2022.

While 2023 EV sales broke the 1 million milestone in November, EVs still made up a sliver—about 7.4 percent—of new-vehicle sales in the U.S. last year, according to Experian data.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which did not speak at the Jan. 10 hearing, previously said California's plan requires "aggressive increases in EV sales," and the industry's transformation to electrification also relies on commitment from federal, state and local governments.

"Auto makers will certainly work to meet whatever standards are eventually adopted, but these draft requirements will be extremely challenging even in California and may not be achievable in all the states that currently follow California's program," the group said in 2022 after the state's proposed regulation was released.

Mercedes-Benz dealer Jeff Aiosa, speaking on behalf of the National Automobile Dealers Association, said franchised dealers have long supported improvements to vehicle emissions that are technologically achievable and meet consumers' affordability and performance needs. Dealers, too, have committed at least $10 billion in training, equipment and other tools necessary for selling and servicing EVs.

But hurdles to mass adoption remain, he warned.

"Policy makers' ambitious push for vehicle electrification, however, fails to appropriately consider the impact of the two major issues to broad consumer EV adoption," he said at the hearing. "One, a charging and electrical infrastructure that is insufficiently robust and reliable, and two, higher vehicle prices."

Thomas Boylan, regulatory director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, warned that failing to grant California's waiver request "would introduce significant regulatory uncertainty for industry and could risk stranding domestic investments."

"EPA's approval of California's request will ensure the supply chain has the regulatory certainty needed, protect today's investments and continue putting the sector on a path to a zero-emission future," he said at the hearing.

Boylan's group has called for 100 percent EV sales in the U.S. by 2030. It represents EV-only manufacturers such as Tesla and Rivian, as well as charging companies and other electrification stakeholders.

A House Republican-backed bill passed in September would block states, namely California, from receiving a federal waiver if their emissions standards directly or indirectly limit the sale or use of new internal combustion engine vehicles. Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate in June.

The bill is unlikely to become to law amid strong opposition from the White House, according to a Reuters report.

A separate vehicle emissions proposal from the EPA unveiled in April could push EVs to 60 percent of new-vehicle sales by the 2030 model year and 67 percent by 2032, according to the agency's projections. Those rules are expected to be finalized later this year.

The alliance—whose members include legacy auto makers such as Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen and Vietnamese EV maker VinFast—has criticized the EPA's proposal, arguing it is "a de facto battery-electric vehicle mandate" that is "neither reasonable nor achievable in the time frame provided."

A bill passed in the House last year—with 216 Republicans and five Democrats voting in favor—would prevent the EPA from finalizing its proposed vehicle emissions standards.

In the Senate, at least 32 Republicans and one Democrat—West Virginia's Joe Manchin—support the legislation.