"President Biden extolled the potential of electric vehicles to boost the economy and reduce America’s contribution to climate change, and sought to ease worries about the reliability of EV technology, during a speech at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday."
The auto market is getting supercharged by California’s recent decision to require all-electric vehicle sales in a little over a decade. The latest TipSheet looks at how this big national trend will affect climate change by cutting CO2 emissions, how California came to have such an outsized impact on the U.S. market and how local environmental reporters can plug in for stories around their communities.
"Nearly one-third of states are poised to adopt California’s new clean cars rule to fully phase out new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035. The change could have a sweeping impact on the 17 states signed onto California’s vehicle standards and the car market across the country. In total, those states make up roughly 40% of nationwide auto sales."
"California’s decision to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars beginning in 2035 will also halt the sale of such vehicles in Virginia due to a 2021 law linking the commonwealth to the western state’s vehicle emissions standards, state attorneys have concluded."
"Enforcement could be complex and legal challenges are likely. But ultimately, experts say, success or failure will depend on steady supply and buyers’ appetite."
"Pitched as a way to develop the country’s poorest region, the Maya Train is threatened by a ballooning budget and rushed construction over fragile terrain. But Mexico’s president has refused to slow it down."
"TAMARACK, Minn. — In this isolated town of about 100 people, dozens of employees are at work for Talon Metals, drawing long cylinders of rock from deep in the earth and analyzing their contents. They liken their work to a game of Battleship — each hole drilled allows them to better map out where a massive and long-hidden mineral deposit is lurking below."
"For years, as California has moved ahead with ambitious clean-air regulations, the state has had to prod the auto industry to go along. Now, in the push to electrify the nation’s car fleet, it is California that is keeping up with automakers."
"The decision, to take effect by 2035, will very likely speed a wider transition to electric vehicles because many other states follow California’s standards."
"California regulators on Thursday will vote to put in place a sweeping plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars, state officials said, a move that the state’s governor described as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine.
"Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to recognize California’s authority to set its own auto emission standards, ending a standoff stretching back to the Trump administration."
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