BLOOMBERG • September 26, 2020
Banning dealers from selling anything but zero-emission cars from 2035, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom decreed this week, sounds radical. Predictably, the Trump administration attacked Newsom’s executive order, and the fossil fuel industry is also unhappy. However, in view of the seriousness of the climate emergency it isn’t very radical at all. The truly eye-catching thing about California’s announcement is that the state will allow the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles, whose emissions contribute to wildfires and heat, for another 15 years. Oil-rich Norway, by contrast, wants to ban cars powered by fossil fuels by as soon as 2025. California is giving the car industry and infrastructure planners time to adapt, but they’ve had plenty already.