Virginia To Adopt California’s Clean Car Emissions Standards

RICHMOND, VA — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to sign a bill this month that directs the State Air Pollution Control Board to implement a low-emissions and zero-emissions vehicle program for vehicles with a model year of 2025 and later.

With this bill, H.B. 1965, Virginia will join 14 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting clean car standards. Transportation accounts for the greatest share — 48 percent — of greenhouse gas emissions in Virginia, and associated air pollution from cars and trucks is also an immediate health risk.

Once Northam signs the bill, Virginia will become the first state in the South to adopt California's more stringent vehicle emissions standards.

A 2020 report from Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action found that fine particulate matter pollution, or PM2.5, from Virginia’s cars and light trucks contributes to 92 deaths, 71 non-fatal heart attacks and 2,600 child asthma attacks every year.

The bill is Virginia’s “second blow to carbon pollution in a one-two legislative punch aimed at taming the top two offenders, the power and transportation sectors,” Elizabeth McGowan reported Tuesday in an article published by the Energy News Network.

“The first, the grid-decarbonizing Virginia Clean Economy Act, took effect last July. It requires the state’s two investor-owned utilities to switch away from fossil fuels — Dominion Energy by 2045 and Appalachian Power by 2050,” McGowan wrote.

Since amendments to the Clean Air Act were signed into law in 1970, California has led the nation in setting strict fuel economy standards for automobiles. The state is allowed to develop its own vehicle emissions rules that are stricter than the federal government’s based on a waiver it received from the Obama administration. This waiver program exists because when the Clean Air Act was written, California’s smog problem was especially bad.

Three years ago, Colorado became the 13th state to adopt California’s strict vehicle emissions standards. Because California’s economy is so large, the state’s stricter fuel efficiency standards have forced automakers to design cars that fit within the state’s standards. Other states are following California's standards to provide for a more uniform system for the auto industry to follow.

Aside from Colorado, the other states that have followed California’s lead in adopting clean car standards are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

As for providing incentives for electric vehicle usage, California ranks as the national leader in vehicle electrification, according to data gathered for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s State Transportation Electrification Scorecard. New York, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington state, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon and New Jersey make up the rest of the top 10.

Virginia is the top performer in the Southeast through its incentives for time-varying electric rates for home and workplace chargers, efforts to green the grid, and expanding fleets of transit e-buses and e-trucks used at ports and for freight delivery.

"Conservationists, health advocates and even some car dealers are cheered that Virginia has become the first in the South — and the 15th overall — to adopt legislation directing automakers to deliver higher inventories of cleaner, fuel-efficient, and electric light- and medium-duty vehicles to the state," McGowan wrote.