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CA Senators Push Biden Administration To Set End Date For Gas-Powered Cars

California senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein are urging the Biden administration to set an end date for the sale of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles in the U.S. Additionally, the Democratic senators have asked Biden to restore the state’s right to set its own standards with regard to vehicle fuel economy and emissions.

According to a recent report from Reuters, Padilla and Feinstein sent President Biden a letter on Monday asking the Biden administration “to follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles.” As GM Authority covered back in September, California has set a goal to phase out the sale of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles by 2035.

“We believe the national baseline should, at an absolute minimum, be built around the technical lead set by companies that voluntarily advanced their agreements with California,” wrote Padilla and Feinstein in the letter, according to Reuters. “California and other states need a strong federal partner.”

Back in 2019, several automakers, including BMW, Ford, Honda, and VW, signed onto an agreement with California in to set stricter fuel economy standards by 2026. The deal was signed in response to the loosening of fuel economy standards by the Trump administration, which rewrote policies enacted under the Obama administration.

Although the Biden administration has yet finalize an end date for the sale of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles, it has voiced strong support for widespread electric vehicle adoption, including funding for additional EV charging stations. Additionally, the Biden administration has announced plans to replace the entirety of the federal government’s fleet, some 650,000 vehicles, with new “Clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers.”

Additionally, Biden has urged U.S. regulatory agencies to reconsider national fuel efficiency standards.

Meanwhile, General Motors has previously announced plans to eliminate tailpipe emissions from its light-duty vehicles by 2035, as well as the global launch of 30 new all-electric vehicles by 2025.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Is “the big guy” a dictator,if so he should also mandate fast chargers must be available nationwide every 50 sq.miles.

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    1. More like every block. I would not even consider a EV if I cannot charge it as fast as I can fill my gas tank.

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      1. Fast charging will NEVER be as fast as gas. PERIOD. It take EIGHT HOURS to charge at your house. It’s so slow you have to do it OVERNIGHT. There is no way this will work if you have to stop and charge for EIGHT HOURS on a freeway trip to grandma 8 states away.

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        1. prepare for a future where people have parties at charging stations for a couple hours LMAO…. let us keep our ICE!!!

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          1. BLM will block people from charging just like they blocked Conservatives from entering voting places.

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    2. If he follows the advice of 2 reps.he will put Trump back in just on that.

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    3. Americans have every right to revolt against this. Antifa will only raise the gas prices until Qanon knocks them down.

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    4. Do you realize how big an area 50sqmi is? Better check your math sounds fuzzy like most demoncrap math is

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      1. Democrats don’t understand math. That’s why they think overpriced solar electricity is cheaper then gas.

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        1. Whoever gave you a thumbs down for your comment clearly doesn’t understand and don’t see how L.A. in particular and now Venice Beach of all places, have become the new face of homelessness due to the high cost of living.

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          1. The government will pay illegals to attend charging station
            🤣

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    5. My suspicion is that he will probably address those issues in his proposed Infrastructure Bill that seriously needs to get passed as another measure to add more jobs and to get these unemployment numbers down, the Senate should not block this Bill from passing, as you also stated and I was thinking the same thing, those Charging Stations should be easily accessible off of major Interstates nationwide and can be constructed on available Lot Space next to a Gas Station or even at designated Rest Areas that allow a max of 30 minutes or more within a Parking Space but at the end of the day, we’re talking a hell of a lot of money being spent over the next 10 years or more for Charging Stations to become add-on’s and then eventually complete replacements of all currently existing Gas Stations over decades time.

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      1. Trump had an infrastructure bill that would have paid for EVERYTHING with ZERO TAX DOLLARS because it was privatized. but democrats rejected it because it wouldn’t use government workers.

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        1. I thought Mexico was going to pay for it.

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          1. Mexico DID pay for it. They lost in Trump’s new Nafta. America won.

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        2. Mitch McConnell was the one who ultimately rejected the passing of the bill.He even stated that it was a Non-Starter!

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          1. McConnell is one of the oldest crustaceans in the Swamp

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  2. Lol, these idiots think they’ll stay in power for this to happen. The party’s over in ’22 and the club lets out in ’24….

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    1. Trump will own the libs in 24 and put EVs out of their misery.

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      1. He won’t be owning too much of anything if he doesn’t successfully get out of the investigations he’s currently under right now, especially with the IRS.

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        1. Libs think they can get Trump the way they got Capone??? LOL

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          1. You wouldn’t be able to get away with what he’s doing.

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            1. What was he doing? Following the law? Bankruptcy is legal.

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              1. Great businessman.

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              2. Owing over 100 Million in back taxes to the IRS is not legal for anyone!, and he did everything to evade the law under those circumstances.

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                1. Do you have evidence? Or just CNN talking points?

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  3. The change is coming but it needs to come at it’s own rate. Forcing people into cars they may not want is no way to run a country.

    We are not out of oil, We are not going to melt down anytime soon and while new EV tech is speeding up it will still take more than 20 years to make the transition.

    ICE by the MFGs is expected to remain to some degree till 2050.

    I love to visit CA but the more that goes on I am willing to let the Cities all become another country as they are not worth the trouble anymore.

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    1. the worst part of california is the price of housing. what big city problems are worse in california than the rest of the nation?

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      1. I Know, california is now a joke.

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      2. How about the homeless taking over San Francisco and deficating in the streets for starters?

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        1. i think the homeless problem in LA is worse. downtown LA skid row is hellish.

          but every big city’s homeless population has a toxic mixture of the destitute, drug addicts and mentally ill. southern california is just worst because the weather is nicer.

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          1. Ever notice RED states have no homeless people? We believe in personal responsibility, blue states don’t.

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            1. Personal Responsibility in the state of Texas which is primarily ran by Republican Leadership was absent during the major power outage that just recently caused many people to die in the cold because they wanted to have their own Energy Independence, let’s not try to look over that!!!

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              1. Frozen wind turbines caused Texas’s blackout and overheated solar panels caused California’s.

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                1. Sure did!

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        2. Hitler knew what to do. And the left crucified him.

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          1. No, it was the Allies that bombed Germany to Hell that did it…..

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        3. Californicate can’t supply enough “green” electricity to supply their residents now and they’re pushing for more EVs. Elon Musk said the electric grid can’t supply enough electricity to go EV total. If the man that started this craze says it can’t be done, why don’t other people understand that.

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          1. Blackouts happen almost every day in Californication. Now their frozen wind turbines are causing the same thing in Texas. If we don’t stop the green energy scam, it will stop us!

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            1. The was no Green Energy Scam , those who invested into the Green Energy movement along with the investment into the Infrastructure failed to get it properly weatherized for the Extreme Cold Climate conditions, Europe is one example as to how they could have done it right.

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              1. That is not true. Frozen wind turbines caused the other plants to OVER PRODUCE and that’s when the gas lines froze because it was moving through the pipes too fast and that’s what caused the whole cascading shut down to happen.

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      3. Whoever gave you a thumbs down for your comment clearly doesn’t understand and don’t see how L.A. in particular and now Venice Beach of all places, have become the new face of homelessness due to the high cost of living.

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    2. Yeah but California won’t listen to guys like you cause your reasonable. I disagree largely with your analysis that the future is eletric. America alone has 500 years + worth of gas for the WORLDS consumption level. Further, in that 20 years of EV tech, copper will get more valuable, ICE tech will improve and carbon capture will become a common tech. Currently gas engines are getting efficient enough that many companies use eletric water pumps that shut off for cruising and idle. Also today’s V6 and sometimes I4’s make the power of yesterday’s V8’s. In 20 years, ICE engines will be smaller, lighter, probably won’t need a radiator and will have an integrated starter alternator, be cheaper to produce than today, have perfect tailpipe emissions, probably only need an oil change every 3 years or maybe even be sealed for life, and we will be back to where we are right now when it comes to economies. That 2050 date assumes that ICE tech remains more or less the same, which it won’t as competition will continue to exist.

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      1. Shhhhh. Don’t you know talking common sense is dangerous in this culture?

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      2. EVs are more efficient so they will comprise a large portion of car sales. But ICE will still make up some car sales. A carbon tax with carbon capture will make ICE just as clean as EVs.

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        1. Carbon capture yes, tax no.

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          1. Carbon should be taxed imo. But EVs carbon footprint should also be taken into consideration. From the mining of the materials for the battery all the way to the “recycling” of the batteries in China.

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        2. EVs are NOT “more efficient” that is a liberal lie and has been debunked over and over.

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      3. Wow, the future ICE car engine that you are describing sounds the same as the one that Ferdinand Porsche designed for Adolf Hitler back in 1930. It went into a Volkswagen.

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        1. The left is so hypocritical. They HATE Hitler for cleaning up the dregs of society pooping on German sidewalks so to speak, but they LOVE Hitler for bringing them their cult cars.

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  4. biden isn’t going to do that. he is going to use a carrot and not a stick to push ev’s.

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    1. The “big guy” only uses the stick when he knows he has the votes to back him up.

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      1. Biden only uses a stick to walk. Out of the public eye that is…

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    2. Mary’s in bed with Biden now, so she’s the one who uses the carrot and he’s the one who uses the stick.

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      1. I’m not liking the visual on that carrot

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        1. Neither does the carrot.

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  5. These old fart politicians won’t live that long to see it, so they don’t care.

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  6. Keep IDIOT politicians out of it. Sorry for the redundancy….

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    1. And how do you do that?

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  7. If the price of gas keeps going up, EV vehicle price keeps going down, quickness of charging come to the same as gas vehicles, and the savings of filling up hit your wallet , then people will automatically change. Until then…enjoy your petrol vehicles..

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    1. EVs are subsidized. Gas cars aren’t.

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    2. Your hypothesis is not going to happen for another 30 years. The entire electrical grid has got to be redesigned, and rebuilt before anything like you’re saying can be accomplished.

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      1. Obama had EIGHT YEARS to rebuild the grid. What did he do? BLAME BUSH!

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  8. California can start their own Union and drive around in their EVs. To the rest… Internal Combustion Power forever!!!

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    1. California can blow up the freeways at it’s borders to keep out regular normal Americans if they want. Nobody will mind. They might even get help from normal regular Americans if they ask nicely.

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  9. Until gas prices become unaffordable, then will EV’s sales take off. During the 1970’s Detroit pushed bigger is always better, 10 mpg was fairly common, 15 mpg on a good day. Then gas went from 40cents to 70cents a gallon and we thought the world was coming to an end. Guess who had small cars with 4 cylinder engines, Japanese brands and it’s when they really got a foothold in the US Market plus reliability as compared to US manufactures trying to do the same. Many answers for the future are in the past.

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    1. Liberals were the ones who raised the gas prices, not conservatives.

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    2. Nowadays, the consumer pushes “bigger is always better” and the market responds. When gas prices reach parity with 1970s levels, there will be strong demand once again for smaller, more economical gas and diesel powered automobiles and now just as then, the Asian manufacturers will be prepared and GM and Ford will be caught with their a$$es in the wind.

      The majority of Americans aren’t ready for pure EVs be it related to the comparatively high purchase price or their relative impracticality outside of the major metro areas which are the narrow focus of these clueless, incompetent, morally superior politicians. The CA dictators have proven time and again they aren’t concerned about the realities of everyday people and unfortunately everyday people and GM alike have seemingly learned very little from the past we’re destined to repeat.

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  10. Growing up with hot rods and custom cars for 64 years and in the business of cars for 45 plus years, we do not want the politicians telling us what we can drive. I’ve dealt with tens of thousands of car owners and they all love and take pride in ownership. In my consulting biz, I talk with consumers and automotive companies daily and so far 1 out of 20 people say they want EV’s. But, there is a “but” in there. This is the reality despite what the media says. Most people are cool with both vehicles, ICE, and EV, rolling together but the powers that be are out to do something here that will not work anytime soon. For one thing, the power grid and charging situation is way out there and not a source of comfort nor convenience for many. And everyone is not happy with being forced into EVs. Your car is a choice and a right, not a privilege despite what the so called experts say. Cars are our last true form of freedom and privacy so why would we want them to make our choices. Yes I know they will solve the issues but there will be many more problems as tie goes on. That info from people who actually work in both fields. For us hot rodders and customizers, if they do cut our gazz V8’s we’ll just do the EVs rebelliously. When they outlaw our hot rods then only outlaws…well…you know.

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    1. Look what happened to Texas because of frozen wind turbines.

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  11. More More Cali nonsense! I just find it hard to believe that the residents of California continue to vote these clowns in office!

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    1. The residents of California live in a delusional bubble where electricity comes from solar power and costs less than gas.

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  12. Man… all you guys need to relax…. we are all American! Stick together…!!
    Want to fight.. go fight with Russia and China!

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    1. With Mary and Biden in bed with China and Russia, Qanon and militias are the only way out. EV charging cords don’t slash themselves. When that happens, THEN liberals will capitulate.

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  13. No state should be allowed to have it’s own fuel economy rules.

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  14. Cali was given an exemption because of its unique geography that captures smog. That being said, states should non arbitrarily be allowed to use Cali’s standards unless they can prove they have a smog problem as well.

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    1. “geography” doesn’t capture smog. Weak, anti-smoking liberal lungs do.

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  15. Because these corrupt high and mighty douchebags running my state into the ground somehow think they have a right to impose their failed policy upon the entire USA (most of which they consider “uneducated” flyover country). Fight or die. It’s that dire and that simple when leftists take control.

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  16. CA thinks they have problems now with rolling blackouts, just wait until 10 million cars are sucking juice every day. Let them go ahead with this plan, but don’t expect any bailout or sympathy from normal Americans.

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    1. After liberals start the next civil war, california will be cut out of the NEW America.

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  17. Trying to impose there will on those of us to make us subservient to there belief. These idiots do not care about the environment, in any shape or form, they care becasue they get funded by special interest. Lets force cars on people that they dont want, lets force them on people without proper infrastrcuture upgrades. Innovation is needed but it seems like electricity is the lazy and easy way out. It has been proven cars can run on alternate fuels, clean burning, heck if one looks at the origins of the automobile the first cars were intneded to run on alcohol, than petroleum products came along and that was the standard.
    The reality of the matter is that going electric is actually regressing and going back to the last century as there were mass prodcued electric cars even into the 1930s. Detroit Elkectric was a maker of these cars, and what is funny withprimitive compared to todays battey technology those cars 90 years ago got close to similar range as these new.
    This is a free market let the consumers decide.
    THis movement is all political, it is to put a phony value on a companies stock. and total value. Part of it is automakers have become lazy in design they want the easy way to business and so this is a phony way of pulling the wool over the consumers eyes.
    ELectric vehicle movements have been around forever but if they are so great and the revolution than why did Gm cancel its EV1 make thosse who had the cars give them back and than GM smashed the cars?>
    Its going to be funny if the market votes to not accept these cars.Now is the time to make sure ICE vehicles run for years and years to come. Becasue this is a farce.

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    1. Not only that, it’s better to rebuild gas and Diesel equipment rather than junking everything and replacing it with all new electric. Also, instead of being so hellbent on thinking tailpipe emissions are everything, they should increase CAFE standards. Less fuel burned is less emissions.

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