The Biden administration recently approved California’s plan to phase out diesel trucks.

Truck manufactures will need to have 55% to 75% of their truck sales be zero-admissions, depending on its certain class, as well as 40% of semi-tractor sales be zero-emission vehicles by 2035, according to Yana Garcia, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Garcia joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to talk about what the new approval means for California’s goal to reduce pollution and vehicle emissions.

In order to be implemented, the truck phase out plan needed to be approved by the federal EPA.

“This is because our air quality has been historically so bad that we were regulating vehicle emissions before the federal government was,” Garcia said.

Garcia explained that it was easier to get a waiver this time around than for previous exemptions from past administrations.

“We’re really excited about the partnership here,” she said. “We’re excited about the ability to not only work with our federal counterparts, but with other states to really drive down greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous health-impact causing emissions from Nitrogen oxide.”

Eight states have moved to adopt or are working to adopt California’s truck standards according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

The new regulations do not affect existing trucks, as the goal of phasing out diesel trucks is to affect future sales to shift the market to zero-emission vehicles and zero-emission technologies which already are being used throughout the state.

“We are not telling people that they can no longer drive their trucks. What we’re saying is we want to see the market going in a particular direction that is more health-protective,” Garcia said.

Garcia recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with environmental leaders throughout the country. While there, she was able to meet with Sen. Alex Padilla to go over the state’s plan to recover from the heavy storms.

“We’ve seen wildfires, we’ve seen droughts, and now we’ve seen floods,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is also an experience that many of our colleagues across other states also face.”

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