California fancies itself a global leader in the fight against climate change. We're taxed to death, we can't use plastic bags, we get punished for driving, so why not take the next step and set a time frame to ban gas powered cars?
France, the United Kingdom, and India have all done it, and now California Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) would like the state to follow them in phasing out gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles.
Ting plans on introducing a bill that would ban the sale of new cars powered by internal-combustion engines after 2040.
In a report from the Sacramento Bee, Ting said:
“The market is moving this way. The entire world is moving this way. At some point you need to set a goal and put a line in the sand.”
California is currently committed to putting 1.5 million "zero-emission vehicles" on the road by 2025. But so far those kinds of cars aren't quite ready or affordable for the regular consumer.
Slightly more than 300,000 zero-emission cars have been sold in California. They accounted for just under 5% of new car sales in state in the first half of 2017.
Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, recently said to Bloomberg:
“I’ve gotten messages from the governor asking, ‘Why haven’t we done something already?’ The governor has certainly indicated an interest in why China can do this and not California."
Assemblyman Ting maintains that California must be aggressive in establishing a green future:
“California is used to being first. But we’re trying to catch up to this. If you had told me five years ago that we might have autonomous vehicles on the road soon, I would have laughed. The technology is moving so quickly, I don’t know if by 2040 we’ll be owning our own cars.”
Let's hope the technology will be affordable, and enough infrastructure will be in place in time for this grand idea to take effect.