Interstate 64 near Bottoms Bridge exit in New Kent County.

Virginia’s landmark legislation in 2021 adopting Clean Cars standards is a commonsense measure. It is also the most significant step the Commonwealth has taken to address the climate crisis, while also providing consumer savings and significant health benefits.

The standards call for the sale of cleaner vehicles each year, allowing Virginians to access more tailpipe pollution-free vehicles. Yet Clean Cars is under attack, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares urging the General Assembly to repeal the law. These attacks are often based on misleading or inaccurate information. It’s time to set the record straight.

How clean cars standards work

Virginia’s Clean Car standards take effect in 2024, and updated standards would be implemented from 2025 to 2034. Each year, the standards require an increasing number of cleaner fossil fuel-powered vehicles and zero-emission vehicles (largely electric vehicles or hybrid EVs) to be offered for sale in the state. The sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles would be phased out.

States have a long history of curbing tailpipe pollution by adopting standards that are more protective than federal standards. The federal Clean Air Act gave California authority to develop stronger standards, which the EPA must approve, and other states can adopt if they wish. The provisions apply to auto manufacturers, rather than auto dealers, and manufacturers have a long history of meeting these standards.

Virginia can’t make up its own standard

The main argument of opponents of Clean Cars is that California should not dictate Virginia vehicle standards, and we should set our own standards. This argument is fundamentally flawed. Virginia cannot make up its own standards.

Clean Cars opponents continually raise the California bogeyman and rail against Virginia being told what to do. They fail to mention that Virginia has no legal authority to create its own standards. Under the Clean Air Act, Virginia has two choices: we can adopt the more protective state standards California develops or we are subject to federal standards. Adopting Clean Cars is the only way we can have tailpipe standards stronger than the federal baseline, and that is the choice the General Assembly made in 2021.

Adopting Clean Cars is not an abdication of state authority; it is an assertion of state authority.

Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution in Virginia, and most transportation pollution comes from fossil-fueled cars. From flooding due to heavy rains in the mountains to sea level rise on the coast, to extreme heat and severe storms, the climate crisis is already affecting communities across the Commonwealth. Tailpipe pollution is also a leading source of other pollutants that harm our health, economy, and environment, and it disproportionately harms low-income communities and communities of color. Shifting to cleaner vehicles is necessary to curb this destructive pollution. Opponents of Clean Cars offer no alternatives. But we cannot bury our head in the sand and hope our pollution problems magically disappear.

The Clean Cars standards also offer consumer savings and economic benefits, since EVs cost less to operate than comparable fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Virginians spend about $25 million daily on imported gasoline; EVs help keep that money in our economy, slash dependence on foreign oil, and reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes.

The new Clean Cars standards are sometimes referred to as a ban of fossil fuel-powered cars, but in fact they phase in the move to EVs. Eventually, the standards call for the sale of 100% tailpipe pollution-free cars in 2034, but even then allow up to 20% of new car sales to be plug-in hybrid EVs that can run on gasoline. There also is flexibility in how manufacturers meet the standards—including the use of credits they can generate, buy, and sell.

Moreover, Clean Cars standards only apply to new vehicles. They do not require vehicles already on the road to be replaced, and they do not affect used cars.

Opponents of Clean Cars claim the standards are unattainable. But the shift to cleaner vehicles is already underway. Major manufacturers plan to phase out fossil fuel-powered cars, and new EV models are being developed and produced across a range of vehicle types and price points. The initial Clean Cars standards don’t go into effect in Virginia until 2024, and updated standards roll out over 10 years after that. If it seems impossible to meet the standards during that time, the General Assembly can decide then to return to the federal standard.

Virginians want clean air, clean vehicles, and action to address the climate emergency. We will be much farther from those goals—and see much greater costs—if we repeal Clean Cars.

Opposing Clean Cars drives us in the wrong direction. Virginia needs to keep Clean Cars and accelerate the shift to a cleaner, healthier future.

Trip Pollard is a senior attorney and leader of the Land and Community Program at the Southern Environmental Law Center. Contact him at tpollard@selcva.org.

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