SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) Reducing emissions from vehicles is critical to the state achieving its air quality mandates and goals, as well as its climate goals. Mobile sources, inclusive of all light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles, along with other nonroad vehicles, are the largest contributors to the formation of ozone, greenhouse gas emissions, fine particulate matter, and toxic diesel particulate matter. In California, mobile sources are responsible for approximately 80 percent of smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
(b) Reducing emissions from light-duty vehicles has tangible impacts on public health, especially for those communities living near major roadways.
(c) The availability of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) has dramatically increased in the past several years, and sales of ZEVs in California lead the nation; however, the state still needs a tenfold increase in the number of ZEVs on California’s roads to meet the goal of 5,000,000 ZEVs on the road by 2030 and 100 percent sales of new vehicles by 2035.
(d) Every purchase of a new internal combustion vehicle represents approximately 81 kilograms of future carbon dioxide emissions assuming it is driven 200,000 miles over its lifetime with an average of 404 grams per mile. Therefore, sales of vehicles with relatively high greenhouse gas emissions now will impede the climate and air pollution benefits of buying the alternative with zero tailpipe emissions.
(e) These emissions also have a disproportionate effect on communities of color. African Americans are almost three times more likely to die from asthma compared to the general population. Latinx children in the United States are twice as likely to die from asthma attacks, and research has shown that communities of color in California experience higher cancer risk from toxic air contaminants.