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Last Updated on October 2, 2022
Legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul will ban the sale of gas-powered cars and trucks in New York by 2035. The state is joining Washington, California, and Massachusetts in phasing in formally rolling out the policy. In total, 12 state governors sent a letter to President Biden last April urging him to push for a federal ban on gas-powered cars by 2035.
Last week, Governor Hochul announced the proposed ban as a part of her administration’s effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in the state.
“New York is implementing the nation’s most aggressive plan to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions affecting our climate and to reach our ambitious goals, we must reduce emissions from the transportation sector, currently the largest source of the state’s climate pollution,” Hochul said in a new release. “The new law and regulation mark a critical milestone in our efforts and will further advance the transition to clean electric vehicles while helping to reduce emissions in communities that have been overburdened by pollution from cars and trucks for decades.”
“Under the new law, new off-road vehicles and equipment sold in New York are targeted to be zero-emissions by 2035, and new medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045,” the release continued.
New York will join California, Washington, Massachusetts and a number of European nations in banning gas-powered vehicles in favor of “zero emissions” alternatives. In California, 16% of new vehicles sold in 2021 were electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids, an all-time high.
Experts have questioned whether these states will be able to build the necessary infrastructure to handle millions of electric vehicles in a short time period.
In Washington state, the infrastructure requirements are both more robust and must be built on a timetable, in order to meet the state’s emissions reduction goal by 2030. In addition to banning the sale of gas-powered vehicles by that date, the massive transportation bill signed earlier this year will fund four new hybrid-electric ferries, 25 transit electrification projects, and free fares for riders 18 and younger on public transportation systems.
