California’s 2035 ban on new gasoline vehicle sales has drawn most of the attention, but the ripple effects across other states are the part of the story that deserves more scrutiny. Virginia is among the states that has adopted California’s emissions standards under a provision of the Clean Air Act, which means the Golden State’s decision doesn’t just affect Californians.
The way the California waiver system works is that states can choose to follow either federal EPA standards or California’s stricter standards — they can’t write their own independent rules. About a dozen states plus DC have historically chosen California’s standards, collectively representing a huge share of the US auto market. When California makes a major change like the 2035 combustion ban, those states are essentially on the same timeline.
For Virginia, which adopted California standards through legislation, this has become politically complicated. The state made the decision during one political environment and is now dealing with the implications in a different one. Efforts to revisit the California standard alignment have been ongoing, reflecting the reality that a blanket ban on new ICE vehicle sales has very different practical implications in a mid-Atlantic state with different geography, income distribution, and charging infrastructure than California.
The broader question raised by California’s outsized influence on national auto standards is a legitimate one regardless of where you stand on EVs. A single state’s regulatory choices, applied through a federal waiver system, effectively set the floor for a large portion of the country. Whether that’s good policy depends heavily on whether you think California’s priorities and circumstances translate well to the diverse range of states that end up aligned with them.
The 2035 deadline is still more than a decade away, and a great deal will change — in technology, in politics, and in the legal landscape around these standards — before it arrives. But for states that find themselves along for the California ride, the conversation about whether that arrangement still makes sense for their residents is one that’s clearly not going away.