On December 18, the Environmental Protection Agency greenlit a major piece of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s progressive fever dream.
The Biden administration today approved California’s groundbreaking mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars just weeks before the incoming Trump administration poses a threat of overturning electric vehicle and climate rules.
The granting of the waiver by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows California to move forward in requiring 35% of new 2026 model cars sold in the state to be zero-emissions, 68% in 2030 and 100% in 2035. Nearly all zero-emission cars are powered by electricity.
The EPA also today gave the go-ahead to a 2020 California regulation requiring reductions in nitrogen oxides — a key ingredient of smog — emitted by heavy-duty trucks and buses.
There was concern about President-elect Donald…
