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General Motors Agrees To Recognize CA’s Authority To Set Its Own Emissions Regulations

General Motors has agreed to recognize the state of California’s authority to set its own stricter emissions regulations.

Per a recent report from Reuters, the commitment means General Motors will be eligible for California government fleet vehicle purchases. It’s estimated that California purchased $58.6 million worth of General Motors vehicles between 2016 and 2018. California accounts for an estimated 12 percent of the U.S. auto market.

“We are committed to working in collaboration with California to achieve an equitable transportation future,” said GM global public policy chief Omar Vargas.

General Motors declared its commitment in a letter to California governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom responded with a statement, saying, “GM is joining California in our fight for clean air and emission reduction as part of the company’s pursuit of a zero-emissions future. This agreement will help accelerate California’s nation-leading commitment to tackling the climate crisis.”

The move is a reversal of General Motors’ previous support for the Trump administration, which in 2019 attempted to pull California’s autonomy in setting its own, stricter emissions standards.

General Motors withdrew its support for the looser restrictions in November of 2020 following Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. The year prior, General Motors was among a group of major automakers, including Toyota and Fiat Chrysler, that supported the Trump administration’s move to roll back fuel economy standards and curb California’s emissions autonomy in favor of a single, nationwide standard.

California, in addition to 22 other states, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration claiming that the federal government did not have the authority to revoke California’s waiver enabling it to set its own emissions and fuel economy standards.

General Motors has since announced plans to eliminate tailpipe emissions from its light-duty vehicles by 2035. GM is now moving to launch 30 new all-electric vehicles globally 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. California has the strictest smog laws and it’s still a sh!t hole. All tough smog laws do is kill independent truckers, small businesses and hurt the poor financially. This State has so much garbage all over the cities and highways it’s unreal. The homelessness is out of control and the human feces and needles litter the sidewalks and streets, but lets set strict smog standards to force people to buy brand new expensive cars, trucks and semis. They just banned gas blowers and other equipment, so now all they landscapers have to buy electric or battery operated equipment. Thank god Mary and GM are going along with these jackoff$.

    Reply
    1. Not to mention that Comrad Newsome also wants to give illegal aliens free health care,when they cannot help their own people.

      You forget gm is now a “woke” company pandering to the lowest common denomonators of the political spectrum, customers be dammed.

      Reply
      1. Shut up. All of you. Leave your politics out of this forum. I’m tired of hearing all you ****tards express your ignorant and uninformed opinions.

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        1. If you don’t like it don’t come to this forum any longer.

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        2. Whoa.

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        3. So riddle me this……why does the EPA need to neglect all the efficiency losses when it calculates MPGe for electric vehicles.

          Yes, please leave the politics out of this….and lets just use real science…..and real science says that TESLAs should be rated as 18 MPGe, not 88 MPGe.

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          1. Please elaborate. Im aware that as 90% of our grid is fossil fuels, averaging about 50% thermally efficient, with almost 10% loss in transformation and transmission (probably 12-15 for California as they import it all over the grid) another 10% for ac-dc conversion and recharge leaves you at .3-.4 your trusty gov approved MPGe. But that puts you at just under 30 real mpg. Am I missing a source of energy loss? Granted nobody cares enough to do the actual math anyways.

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        4. Like the old saying goes, “When in Beijing…”

          Reply
  2. CA built the biggest solar energy capture installation on the planet…..and then they had to hook it up to natural gas because it was only generating 10% of the power that the very honest engineers sold the public on.

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  3. The sad part is you can’t take the politics out of this as that is where the problem lies.

    Not only is California ridiculous in the numbers they push but their standards are being adopted by other states like New York and Massachusetts.

    Like it or not GM and the others are going to be stuck going along with what ever they want as they can not afford to abandon these markets.

    With every major MFG going to EV these crazy laws will not be a problem for MFGs.

    Might note what is becoming an issue is that the tax paying citizens are leaving these states in record numbers. They are going to FL, TX MS and more. This is leaving a great void and much of it is being filled by non citizens that often are not paying taxes either. They will be faced with a great financial crisis if this trend continues as it appears to be.

    The companies like GM have been forced to commit to EV as they can’t keep changing plans every 4 years with the revolving door of policies that keep changing.

    My fear is now that many are moving out of California and NY they may vote the same issues in where they are moving. Most are not clear enough to know they voted their problems into office. Some just never learn.

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  4. It would be an interesting study to see if CA had a 100% zero pollution rating how would that effect the pollution of the entire world? Someone better tell volcanos to stop discharging harmful gasses into the atmosphere. Some info on this; By far the most abundant volcanic gas is water vapor, which is harmless. However, significant amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen halides can also be emitted from volcanoes.

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  5. GM needs to stop pandering to the leftist agenda, it’s only going to leave them broke. If GM is going to accept California’s emissions standards then make ALL of their vehicles meet the same standards – don’t do 49 states and California, that just gives the dealers in this state another reason to gouge the consumer. If their vehicles were built the same nationwide it would create competition letting the California dealers know they aren’t the only ones selling these vehicles. This would be good for good for the economy. But sooner or later everyone needs to stand up and tell the legislators in California to pound sand.

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    1. One of California ‘s big wild fires this year was caused by Power Co. equipment, again. Good luck charging EVs out there.

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  6. Isn’t declaring a commitment to their political demands as a prerequisite to doing business kinda the same thing as requiring a religious creed? Am I the only one who is just cringing that their wokeness religion?

    Reply

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