Another State Just Made a Big Step Toward Banning Gas-Powered Cars
Nelly Bellamy
· 3 min read
In mid-April, Washington state passed a bill that aims to ban the sale of gas cars by 2030. Located in the pristine Pacific Northwest, Washington is working towards cleaner air, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and more renewable energy use.
If you live in Washington or a state with similar new policies, you can still buy gas cars. But if you want to support the environment, buying a hybrid or electric car can help you stay green and save costs on
car insurance
.According to
Reuters
, this bill hopes to ban gas cars five years earlier than California. Here’s what you need to know about exactly what the new bill means and what other states are doing. How will the Washington bill help the environment?
Simply put, the full implementation of the law should encourage more Washington residents to drive electric vehicles. The bill still needs to be signed by Washington's Democratic Governor Jay Inslee before the law can be enforced statewide. After that, there's still some criteria that needs to be met.
Reuters’ report says the bill’s electric vehicle goal will kick in when 75% of Washington’s registered vehicles need to pay a
Road Usage Charge
(RUC). An RUC is a per-mile tax that is meant to replace the gas tax. It’s designed to help pay for new, sustainable transportation infrastructure like electric car charging stations or a more robust electric power supply grid.Local environmental activists are celebrating the new green bill. Groups like Coltura see it as a victory against climate change.
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Other states that are banning gas cars
In September 2020,
CarBuzz
reported that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to ban the sale of new gas cars by 2035. An article from Car and Driver
said that Massachusetts followed California's lead and announced the same plan. New Jersey also set a goal to eliminate the sale of new gas cars by 2035 but hasn’t introduced any official legislation.Other states will follow suit as momentum for this change increases. In a memo from the
Whitehouse
, President Biden shows support for electric vehicles and the infrastructure required to operate them.According to
AutoWeek
, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) was formed to enforce limits on emissions that are stricter than the Environmental Protection Agency. Over the years, more than a dozen states have joined CARB including New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington state, Washington D.C., and many others. New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Washington state have already set goals to ban gas cars, but other CARB states will likely join the fray as well.
What will happen to gas cars?
If you are a resident of California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, or Washington, you can still drive, buy, and sell used gas cars even after the laws take effect. So far, all the proposed bans only affect the sale of new gas cars. However, you might have to pay taxes if you drive a gas car even before the 2030 deadline in Washington.
