California Considering A Ban On Gas-Powered Cars

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Gasoline- and diesel-burning vehicles might become a thing of the past in California if Gov. Jerry Brown has his way.

Brown is considering a ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles in the Golden State.

“To reach the ambitious levels of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, we have to pretty much replace all combustion with some form of renewable energy by 2040 or 2050,” Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, told Bloomberg Friday.

Nichols revealed that Brown is interested in such a ban.

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“I’ve gotten messages from the governor asking, ‘Why haven’t we done something already?’” Nichols said, referencing a plan by China to phase out cars that run on gas. “The governor has certainly indicated an interest in why China can do this and not California.”

In addition to China, the United Kingdom and France are moving to implement such bans. China’s vice minister of industry and information technology, Xin Guobin, revealed Sept. 9 that such a ban was in the works. The Chinese want to prohibit the sale of all new vehicles powered by gasoline or diesel fuel; older cars could remain on the road until they wear out.

China followed the lead of the United Kingdom, where that government wants to ban the sale of new gas and diesel powered cars by 2040, and France, which is working on a similar ban. The French government has already banned many older gasoline and diesel cars from Paris in an effort to combat pollution.

Governments in Germany, India and Saudi Arabia also have investigated the possibility of banning gasoline vehicles.

The auto industry is taking such threats very seriously. Ford, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Mini, BMW, Jaguar, and even Maserati have announced plans for new electric vehicles. Tesla and Cummins have revealed plans for electric semi-trucks, and UPS is testing electric delivery trucks built by Mercedes’s parent, Daimler.

“There are people who believe, including who work for me, that you could stop all sales of new internal-combustion cars by 2030,” Nichols said. “Some people say 2035; some people say 2040. It’s awfully hard to predict any of that with precision, but it doesn’t appear to be out of the question.”

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