[HN Gopher] House votes to block California from banning sales o...
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       House votes to block California from banning sales of gas cars by
       2035
        
       Author : melling
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2025-05-01 21:02 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
        
       | valunord wrote:
       | Thanks goodness!
        
         | WalterGR wrote:
         | Why?
        
           | 62951413 wrote:
           | Not every SWE working in the Bay Area can afford a $1.5M
           | house just to charge his car. Not to mention that the car
           | would be twice as expensive (e.g. top Elantra 2025 trim at
           | $30K vs Model 3 at $50K+).
        
       | abeppu wrote:
       | > "Congress, not California, is the only body that can regulate
       | the interstate automotive market," Joyce said during a Monday
       | meeting of the House Rules Committee
       | 
       | > Yet the Senate parliamentarian, the nonpartisan arbiter of the
       | upper chamber's rules and procedures, ruled last month that the
       | waiver is not a regulation subject to the Congressional Review
       | Act.
       | 
       | > Regardless of action on Capitol Hill, the EPA could revoke
       | California's waivers on its own.
       | 
       | So the House voted to block this but it's pretty murky whether
       | congress has such an authority, but the EPA _does_ have such an
       | authority ... but why does any federal body have this authority?
       | I can see how e.g. if CA attempts to outlaw residents from buying
       | cars in NV, that this would be an inter-state commerce issue. But
       | if a CA resident wants to buy a car (from a dealership) in CA,
       | why shouldn't CA be able to set requirements about that car?
        
         | mullingitover wrote:
         | That ship has sailed. There was a Supreme Court judgment log
         | before we were born that decided that a farmer growing
         | something on their own land for their own consumption was
         | affecting interstate commerce because it was affecting demand
         | in other states. Numerous cases since have further nailed down
         | the claim that basically any economic activity is governed by
         | federal law.
        
           | floxy wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn
        
         | floxy wrote:
         | >but why does any federal body have this authority?
         | 
         | The current "Advanced Clean Cars II" is operating under a
         | federal EPA waiver for California and 12 other states. The EPA
         | regulates sources of pollution, which includes internal
         | combustion automobiles. The current waiver allows California
         | (and the other states with identical legislation) to have
         | stricter pollution standards for cars than the rest of the
         | U.S..
         | 
         | California could institute a special sales tax on internal
         | combustion engine vehicles and raise the rate on gas taxes
         | without federal interference.
        
       | melling wrote:
       | How does this affect carbon credit sales? Tesla makes a lot of
       | money selling credits.
        
       | tyleo wrote:
       | This quickly fell from the front page as a lot of articles
       | related to anything congress or US president have recently.
       | 
       | It's really annoying. I want to have the discussion. There's some
       | interesting things to understand here like whether congress
       | should be able to block state regulations. If they can't is that
       | power in the EPA?
       | 
       | It's disappointing to me that we can't even have conversations
       | about how governments should work because people are so worried
       | about having their feelings hurt they flag everything :/
        
       | BLKNSLVR wrote:
       | I thought the current administration, and the republican party in
       | general, were for smaller federal government and giving more
       | autonomy to the states, eg. Shutting down the federal department
       | of education since the states can manage their own education
       | systems independently.
       | 
       | Now they're trying to step on state based decisions?
       | 
       | Is it purely an "I like this but I don't like that" decision
       | process?
        
         | floxy wrote:
         | This is due to the heavy lobbying on the part of the existing
         | automobile manufacturers combined with the fact that meeting
         | the goals would seem to be a big disruption for the industry.
         | 
         | https://www.autosinnovate.org/posts/blog/repeal-gas-vehicle-...
         | 
         | https://www.autosinnovate.org/posts/press-release/house-repe...
         | 
         | See the membership here:
         | 
         | https://www.autosinnovate.org/about/our-members
         | 
         | ..which includes companies like Hyundai, Kia, General Motors,
         | Ford, Honda, etc. (which are currently the biggest players in
         | the EV market behind Tesla in the U.S.), and of course the
         | usual players without much headway in the EV space: Toyota,
         | Subaru, Mazda, etc..
         | 
         | The ZEV sales requirements start with the 2026 model year, and
         | steadily increase:                   Model| ZEV         Year |
         | sales       -------+-------         2026 | 35%         2027 |
         | 43%         2028 | 51%         2029 | 59%         2030 | 68%
         | 2031 | 76%         2032 | 82%         2033 | 88%         2034 |
         | 94%         2035+|100%
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-01 23:02 UTC)