California pushes back for EVs: proposed bill for no gas cars sold in US by 2040, ICE ban in state?

by Phil Dzikiy, Electrek

As the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to introduce the final form of its proposal to freeze US fuel economy standards sometime in the near future, California is giving more indications of how it intends to fight the regulatory rollback.

Late last week, California Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) co-introduced the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act of 2019 in the House and Senate, respectively. The proposed bill would require 50% of new passenger vehicle sales in the US to be zero emission EVs, by 2030.

That percentage would increase 5% each year until 2040, when all new passenger cars sold in the US would be all-electric (or hydrogen fuel cell) vehicles.