California To Stop Buying Vehicles From Automakers Siding With Trump’s Emissions Standards

There has been a lot in the news lately concerning California between emissions scandals and the back and forth with the Trump administration. Now, however, the governor has announced the state would no longer do business with automakers who choose to side with the Trump administration’s new stance on emission standards.

Starting immediately, California state agencies will no longer buy gas-powered sedans, officials said Friday. And starting in January, the state will stop purchasing vehicles from carmakers that haven’t agreed to follow California’s clean car rules. A statement was sent to Calmatters.org saying:

The decision affects General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and multiple other automakers that sided with the Trump administration in the ongoing battle over tailpipe pollution rules. The policy will hit General Motors particularly hard; California spent more than $27 million on passenger vehicles from GM-owned Chevrolet in 2018.

California’s Department of General Services, the state’s business manager that oversees vehicle purchases for California’s fleet, announced the bans on Friday afternoon. The immediate ban on state purchases of cars powered only by gas will include exceptions for public safety vehicles.

While the Trump Administration hasn’t officially rolled back the Obama-era emission standards, they did make a move to push back some of the roadblocks for vehicle production earlier this year when the EPA changed rules to disallow California to set its own standards for “greenhouse gases”.