Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) vowed to block all efforts to ban gas-powered vehicles in Virginia.
His declaration comes after California’s Air Resources Board voted Thursday to implement an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) that phases out gas-powered vehicles and bans the sale of them beginning in 2035. Virginia passed a law in 2021 that set the Commonwealth on a path to adopt California’s emissions standards.
“In an effort to turn Virginia into California, liberal politicians who previously ran our government sold Virginia out by subjecting Virginia drivers to California vehicle laws,” Youngkin wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “Now, under that pact, Virginians will be forced to adopt the California law that prohibits the sale of gas and diesel-fueled vehicles. I am already at work to prevent this ridiculous edict from being forced on Virginians. California’s out of touch laws have no place in our Commonwealth.”
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Republican leaders in Virginia attempted to pass a bill that would have canceled the enactment of the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The “Repeal VCEA” legislation passed the commonwealth’s House of Delegates but hit a wall in the Senate earlier this year.
Still, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Todd Gilbert vowed not to give up.
“House Republicans will advance legislation in 2023 to put Virginians back in charge of Virginia’s auto emission standards and its vehicle marketplace,” Gilbert said in a statement. “Virginia is not, and should not be, California.”
Trip Pollard, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, told the Associated Press states that adopt California’s standards will be able to offer better “consumer choice” for drivers who want an electric vehicle and that it was “unfortunate” that Republicans would want to take that away.
“We certainly will be arguing strongly to members of both parties that this is something Virginia should stick with,” Pollard said.
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While Republicans have control in Virginia’s House of Delegates, Democrats control the state Senate by one vote, posing a hurdle to the plans of Youngkin and his GOP allies in the legislature.
