Carper urges tough US rules barring gas-powered cars by 2035

A top Senate Democrat is urging U.S. anti-pollution standards that would follow a deal brokered by California with five automakers and then set targets to end sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035

WASHINGTON -- A top Senate Democrat is urging U.S. anti-pollution standards that would follow a deal brokered by California with five automakers and then set targets to end sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, a goal that reaches farther than President Joe Biden’s climate plan. In a letter sent late Thursday to the Environmental Protection Agency, Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, says the administration must move forcefully in the auto sector to achieve Biden’s plan of slashing America’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Carper notes that the industry is already moving in the direction of zero-emission electric vehicles and that it's critical to lay markers now to ensure that the U.S. positions itself as a top player in auto manufacturing over foreign competitors such as China. “Strong policies in the United States will encourage those investments to be made here,” Carper wrote in the letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, which was obtained by The Associated Press. He cited likely U.S. gains in “research and development, manufacturing and ultimately export opportunities in automotive technology.”