In a nutshell, no. Despite what right-wing news media are saying.
Fox News has a story this evening to the effect that because California is restricting sales of new gasoline vehicles, then Virginia is too. Why? Because those idiot liberals who were running Virginia in 2021 swallowed California’s pollution rules hook, line and sinker.
And now we’re stuck with doing whatever California tells us to do.
It’s a great story for getting people angry.
The problem is, it’s wrong. It’s a story written by people who never actually bothered to read the relevant laws and regulations.
And the reason for that is really simple: California’s new rule is just that. It’s literally a new section of California law:
Source: California Air Resources Board.
In 2021, Virginia did in fact adopt a section of existing California law. That section was a technical standard for the average emissions levels for new cars sold in the state, starting in 2025. What we adopted by reference was a different section of California law. Specifically:
Source: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (.pdf)
In a nutshell, we adopted California’s Level III clean car standards. This latest thing is California’s Level IV standards.
We didn’t adopt those.
Moreover, I think that makes a lot of sense.
First, it makes sense that California would put this radical change into a new section of the law. If nothing else, if they have to rescind it, they’ve still got the Level III standards in place.
Second, what Virginia adopted was essentially a known set of technical specifications. It was a set of clean-new-car standards that the (highly respected) California Air Resources Board believed to be feasible.
When California made this latest change, they (deliberately, I believe) made it as a new and separate section of the law.
Maybe a lawyer can find some way to interpret this differently. But if you actually bother to read the Virginia regulation, then, no, we did not pro-actively adopt whatever new regulations California decided to pass. To the contrary, we adopted an established and well-respected set of technical standards governing the eventual clean-up of pollution from cars and trucks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m shocked, shocked, to find that Fox News ignored the facts in order to rile up their base. I guess this perfect hate-the-libs story was just too good to let reality get in its way. They sure aren’t ones to let facts get in the way of a good story.
But, as a life-long Virginian, with great respect for the efficiency and rationality of Virginia state government, I can’t help but say the C-word. The last thing we need is a bunch of carpetbaggers throwing shade and sowing dissent around here.
If you have a problem with California’s new law, take it up with California. And tell us your proposed solutions for climate change while you’re at it.
Featured image courtesy of memegenerator.com
Extras for experts: Want to know why California takes air pollution so seriously? Check out this study of lung function in Southern California children. Turns out that air pollution is bad for children and other living things.
