New York joins California to ban sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035

New York will mandate all new vehicle purchases in the state to be zero-emission starting in 2035. New York Governor Kathy Hochul made the announcement last week at a press conference in White Plains, New York.

“We’re really putting our foot down on the accelerator and revving up our efforts to make sure we have this transition – not someday in the future, but on a specific date, a specific year – by the year 2035,” Hochul said.

The governor arrived at the press conference driving a white Chevy Bolt to demonstrate her point. She outlined several electric vehicle initiatives for the state and set benchmarks of reaching 35% of new cars to be zero-emission by 2026 and 68% by 2030.

She also said all new school buses will be zero-emission by 2027 and said the entire fleet of buses will meet the deadline to be zero-emission by 2035.

“We actually have benchmarks to achieve, to show we’re on the path to get there,” Hochul said.

Last month, California voted to ban the sale of gas-powered cars starting in 2035. Now, New York is setting the same timeline for its goal. Federal regulations say that any state-led initiative to enforce emission rules must happen in California first.

“We had to wait for California to take a step because there’s some federal requirements that California had to go first – that’s the only time we’re letting them go first,” Hochul said. “That’s all right,” the governor said. “Once they made that decision, we are able to step up immediately and say now there’s nothing holding us back.”

Hochul put the required regulatory action in the hands of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which will be expediting its process of implementing legislation signed by the governor last year.

The governor also announced a $10 million investment in the state’s Drive Clean Rebate program. Hochul said the program will “help New Yorkers purchase and drive these vehicles.” The program offers a rebate of up to $2,000, and more than 78,000 rebates have already been issued. So far, the program has spent more than $90 million on the program.

Another announcement involved the installation of the one-hundredth high-speed EV charger by the New York Power Authority. Hochul said battery-powered EVs could charge within 20 minutes at these stations. New York will receive a share of $175 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law, which provides $5 billion for states to expand their network of EV charging stations.

“So that’s going to help over 14 interstates in New York, especially ones used by the people in this community,” Hochul said. “So you’re going to see that you have no more excuses.”

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