California is well-known for frustrating traffic gridlock and making green leaps forward. With growing wildfires, Californians know too well the importance of switching to renewable energy and electrical cars, and it’s with this in mind that the state’s taken on its newest endeavor. 

California has unveiled its plan to completely phase out gas-powered cars by 2035. 

Cleaning the roads and the air

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced Wednesday that it will require 35 percent of new cars sold in California to be battery or hydrogen-powered powered by 2026. This would go a long way toward its 2035 goal of ending sales of gas-powered vehicles. 

“Emissions from motor vehicle engines hurt public health, welfare, the environment, and the climate in multiple interrelated ways,” CARB wrote. 

Gas-powered cars negatively affect the planet and people’s health, the particulate matter released being very harmful to people’s lungs. 

This is a big step forward for the Golden State, for whom transportation accounts for 50 percent of its greenhouse gasses, and it is also a major move for the United States. 

Starting on the West Coast and moving east

California is the fifth-largest economy in the world and the largest in the United States, and its decision on this plan could influence the car market around the country. Other states such as New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and at least 15 other states have echoed California’s clean car regulations in the past, and we might see the same from this new plan. 

Electric vehicle sales are growing in California, rising from 7.8 percent of new-car sales in 2020 to 12.4 in 2021, according to CNBC. The new plan would see this rise to 86 percent by 2030. 

CARB will vote on the proposal in August. If it passes, this plan could be a standard for the rest of the United States to make a titanic switch to electric vehicles.