Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears presented a united front with Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) in his determination to cut his inherited ties to California’s vehicle emissions policies after Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement that the Golden State will be banning the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.
(Video: Fox News)
“We’re going to try and repeal this law because we have to,” Sears said Monday on “Fox & Friends First.”
In 2021, under then-Governor Ralph Norton, Virginia’s liberal legislators shackled their state’s vehicle emissions policies to the whims of California, which, as Breitbart notes, are among the most restrictive and progressive in the nation. So when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced on Friday that it had finalized regulations on a proposal that would, in just 13 years, force anyone in California who wants to buy a new car to buy an EV, Virginia residents were automatically bound by the same “ridiculous” policy.
Governor Youngkin wasted no time mounting an effort to dig Virginians out of the mess his predecessor left them in.
“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 said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“Now, under that pact,” he continued, “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,” he promised his constituents. “California’s out of touch laws have no place in our Commonwealth.”
My statement on untying Virginia from California’s EV rule: https://t.co/BWSQKSgN4V pic.twitter.com/MK3mNKPyBb
— Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) August 26, 2022
On Fox News, Sears drove the point home.
“We didn’t get any opportunity to have any say in what California is doing,” she stated. “They decided, just last Thursday, that by 2035, there will be no gas-powered vehicles sold in California.”
“That’s alright, and that’s good for them, except that we had the previous Democrat legislature and governor hitch us to whatever California does,” she continued. “If California wants to jump off a cliff, as my mother would say, you’re going to do that, too?”
“Apparently, we are,” she said, adding, “Here’s the kicker.”
“By 2026, one-third of all vehicles sold in California must be zero emissions. Otherwise, the automakers will have a $20,000 fine. Guess what? That’s going to happen right here in Virginia as well, because we said ‘ditto.'”
Tying Virginia to California’s laws negates any say Virginia voters may have in their future.
“If that’s how we’re going to pass laws in Virginia where, whatever California does, that’s what we do, then why do we have legislatures?” Sears argued. “Why do we have a governor?”
“We’re going to get rid of this thing,” she vowed, “and we hope that we can get at least a few sensible Democrat legislators to say, ‘not here, not in Virginia.'”
According to Breitbart, it is unlikely that even Gavin Newsom will be able to pull off his lofty goals.
“California faces several challenges: electric vehicles are still very expensive; key components are controlled by China; the infrastructure for charging is still very limited, and the U.S. lacks the engineering workforce to transform the vehicle fleet,” the outlet reported.
What’s more, California has trouble just keeping the lights on, thanks to Newsom’s progressive, “green” policies.
“Adding millions of electric vehicles” to the state’s already swamped electric grid, says Breitbart, “will mean further burdens on a failing system.”
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