Dear CARB,
As a young Californian, who studies climate change policies and
solutions, I would strongly encourage you to accelerate the
phaseout of combustion vehicle sales. We cannot afford to allow
continued sales of gas cars through 2035. Every gas car sold will
lock in dependency on fossil fuels, and create emissions for years
if not decades after the sale. Any car sold in 2035 could be on the
road for more than a decade, and so allowing sale of gas cars in
2035 will make it near impossible to meet our deadline of carbon
neutrality by 2045.
Furthermore, allowing sale of gas cars will strengthen dictators
like Putin and MBS, who thrive off of oil revenues. Every gas car
sold harms our national security, by enabling dictators to profit
from oil sales.
For that reason, we must move up our phaseout date to 2030, if
not earlier. The state of Washington is phasing out sales of gas
cars by 2030. We can do that too. We must pair a phaseout of gas
cars with increased investment in EV charging infrastructure and
public transportation, including regional rail and bus services,
and expansion of light rail and metro services within our
cities.
Best regards,
Narayan Gopinathan
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