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| Photo Credit: AP. |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Seventeen states with vehicle emission standards tied to rules established in California face weighty decisions on whether to follow that state’s strictest-in-the nation new rules that require all new cars, pickups and SUVs to be electric or hydrogen powered by 2035.
Under the
Clean Air Act, states must abide by the federal government’s standard vehicle
emissions standards unless they at least partially opt to follow California’s
stricter requirements.
Among them,
Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Vermont are expected to adopt
California’s ban on new gasoline-fueled vehicles. Colorado and Pennsylvania are
among the states that probably won’t. The legal ground is a bit murkier in
Minnesota, where the state’s “Clean Cars” rule has been a political minefield
and the subject of a legal fight. Meanwhile, Republicans are rebelling in
Virginia.
The
Minnesota Auto Dealers Association says its reading of state and federal law is
that the new California rules kick in automatically in the state, and it’s
making that case in court as it tries to block them.
“The
technology is such that the vehicles just don’t perform that well in cold
weather,” said Scott Lambert, the trade group’s president. “We don’t all live
in southern California.”
Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency officials say the state would have to launch an
entirely new rulemaking process to adopt California’s changes. And in court
filings and legislative hearings, they’ve said they are not planning to do that
now.
“We are not
California. Minnesota has its own plan,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement. He
called Minnesota’s program “a smart way to increase, rather than decrease,
options for consumers. Our priority is to lower costs and increase choices so
Minnesotans can drive whatever vehicle suits them.”
Oregon
regulators are taking public comments through Sept. 7 on whether to adopt the
new California standards. Colorado regulators, who adopted California’s older
rules, won’t follow California’s new ones, the administration of Democratic
Gov. Jared Polis said.
“While the
governor shares the goal of rapidly moving towards electric vehicles, he is
skeptical about requiring 100% of cars sold to be electric by a certain date as
technology is rapidly changing,” the Colorado Energy Office said in a
statement.
Regulators
in Pennsylvania, which only partially adopted California’s older standards,
said they won’t automatically follow its new rules. Under Democratic Governor
Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania started the regulatory process last year to fully
conform with California’s rules, but abandoned it.
Virginia had
been on a path to adopting California’s rules under legislation that passed
last year when Democrats were in full control of Virginia’s government. But
Republicans who control the House of Delegates and GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin say
they’ll push to unlink their state.
Minnesota’s
auto dealers are trying to make their state’s current rules — and the
possibility that they could tighten to incorporate California’s new
restrictions — an issue for the fall elections. Control of the Legislature and
governor’s office are up for grabs, and the dealers hope to persuade the 2023
Legislature to roll back the regulations unless they win in court first,
Lambert said.
The MPCA,
with Walz’s support, adopted California’s existing standards through
administrative rulemaking last year amid a bitter fight with Republican
lawmakers who were upset that the Legislature was cut out of the decision.
Legislators even tried unsuccessfully to withhold funding from Minnesota’s
environmental agencies. One casualty was Laura Bishop, who resigned as MPCA
commissioner after it became apparent that she lacked the votes in the
GOP-controlled Senate to win confirmation.
Walz and his
administration have framed Minnesota’s Clean Cars rule as a fairly painless way
to increase the availability of electric vehicles and help the state meet its
greenhouse gas reduction goals. The rule seeks to increase the offerings of
battery-powered and hybrid vehicles starting with the 2025 model year by
requiring manufacturers to comply with California standards currently in force
for low- and zero-emission vehicles.
Lambert said
the state’s auto dealers don’t oppose electric vehicles. They currently make up
2.3% of new vehicle sales in Minnesota and he expects consumer interest to
continue to grow. But the reduced range of battery-powered vehicles in cold
weather makes them less attractive in northern tier states, he said.
Minnesota’s rules already threaten to saddle dealers with more electric
vehicles than their customers will buy, he said, and adopting the California
ban would make things worse.
Under
federal law, by Lambert’s reading, states have to either adopt California’s
rules in full or follow less stringent federal emission standards. He said they
can’t pick and choose from parts of each. And that effectively means there’s a
“ban on the books” in Minnesota for sales of new conventionally fueled vehicles
starting with the 2035 model year, he said.
Lambert’s
association was already fighting Minnesota’s existing Clean Car rules in the
Minnesota Court of Appeals, and its petition foresaw that California would make
the changes it announced late last month. A key issue in whether “any future
amendments to the incorporated California regulations automatically become part
of Minnesota rules,” as the dealers argue.
The MPCA’s
attorneys assert that they don’t, and have asked the court to dismiss the
challenge. MPCA Commissioner Katrina Kessler has made similar arguments for months,
including before a skeptical state Senate committee last March.
Aaron Klemz,
chief strategy officer for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy,
which will be filing its own arguments against the dealers in court,
acknowledged that the legal landscape is confusing. And he said it’s not clear
whether his group will eventually call for Minnesota to follow California’s new
ban.
“We haven’t
done enough analysis of the California rule to know if we’re going to push for
its adoption in Minnesota,” Klemz said. He noted that other issues are coming
into play, including incentives for electric vehicles in the Inflation
Reduction Act that President Joe Biden recently signed, and the stated
intentions by some of the major automakers to go all-electric.
Associated
Press reporters Jim Anderson in Denver; Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon;
and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this story.