CARB Maintains Emissions Program Through 2025

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously to continue with the vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards and zero-emission vehicle program for cars and light trucks sold in California through 2025.

The action ensures that California and 12 other states that follow its vehicle regulations will move forward greenhouse gas emission standards adopted in the 2012 process involving the federal government, California and the automakers.

The Board also voted to support the expansion of the zero-emission vehicle marketplace before 2025, calling for redoubling current efforts underway to support market growth and paving the way for new regulations to rapidly increase the number of zero-emission vehicles required to be sold in California after 2025.

We invite the global industry to bring us their best cars and trucks and take advantage of the willingness of our leaders to provide a broad range of incentives to help make these vehicles affordable,” said CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols. “And we also invite them to come sit down with us if they have specific concerns about implementation of the existing regulations that can be addressed without weakening the impact overall.”

The Board vote was supported by representatives from the 12 states that have adopted California’s standards. Those states together have a population of 113 million and constitute roughly 30 percent of the nation’s new car sales. Senior environmental officials from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon testified at today’s hearing to urge the Board’s approval.

The Board action affirmed the comprehensive, multi-year staff assessment and analysis that concluded that the standards for model years 2022-25 are appropriate and feasible. The staff assessment found that the technology to achieve them is not only currently available, but has exceeded the original expectations, both for level of development and cost, when the standards were adopted with automaker support in 2012.

The Board’s vote reached the same conclusion as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in its final determination in January on the federal greenhouse gas emission standards for model years 2022-25.  Last week, however, the Trump administration rescinded that decision, and announced that it intends to reconsider the final determination in coordination with the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency, which is responsible for setting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

The staff Midterm Review report is available here.