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Calif. Lawmaker Proposing Fines To Increase Sales Of Zero-Emission Vehicles

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A California lawmaker told The Associated Press on Friday that she's introducing legislation to require that 15 percent of new vehicles be emission-free in less than a decade, a significant escalation in the state's efforts to speed the evolution of new car technology.

Automakers that fail to sell enough electric vehicles would be required to make payments to rivals that do or pay a fine to the state under legislation to be introduced by Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Los Angeles, next week.

"If we create more competition in the market, that automatically will trigger a more affordable vehicle," Burke said in an interview.

The legislation comes as an effort to extend the state's landmark climate change law until 2030 falters in the state Assembly and sets up a showdown between powerful environmental advocates and automakers in the frenzied final weeks of California's legislative session.

Burke's proposal would beef up California's existing vehicle mandates, which require automakers to gradually introduce cleaner vehicle technology.

Under current law, automakers accumulate credits for selling vehicles with cleaner technology and must hit annual targets. Environmental advocates say automakers have stockpiled credits for future use and won't have sufficient incentive to sell electric vehicles at affordable prices, preventing the state from meeting its goals for greenhouse gas reduction.

"The current credit program just does not appear to be working," said Kish Rajan, a spokesman for CalInnovates, an industry group for the technology sector, and a former Brown appointee. "At least it's not working fast enough to get toward the goals that the governor has laid out and that CARB is seeking to enforce," he said, referring to the state's Air Resources Board.

Vehicles that now get credits toward complying with the environmental mandates, such as plug-in hybrids, would not be eligible to meet the 15-percent mandate.

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles now account for about 3 percent of California new-car sales, according to the Air Resources Board, which administers California's climate laws.

The Auto Alliance, which represents vehicle manufacturers, declined to comment.

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order in 2012 calling for 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025; 192,000 have been sold since 2010, according to the air board.

A spokesman for Brown, Gareth Lacy, declined to comment on the proposed legislation but said in an email that "the governor has been strongly supportive of increasing the number of zero-emission vehicles in California."

 

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.

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