>"Maryland legislators and environmental groups are urging Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration to adopt California’s new electric vehicle standards by the end of the year, or risk falling behind the Golden State.
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>California’s regulation requires an increasing percentage of light-duty vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission. By model year 2035, all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state will need to be electric, with a maximum of 20% of models being plug-in hybrids.
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>The rule was approved by the California Air Resources Board in August, following a 2020 executive order from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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>According to Maryland’s Department of Legislative Services, Maryland must eventually do the same. That’s because in 2007, state legislators passed a law pledging to adopt and maintain California’s vehicle emissions standards, which were stricter than the federal government’s.
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>In a statement, a spokesman for Maryland’s Department of the Environment said officials will start “considering action” after California’s Office of Administrative Law issues a final approval for the state’s policy.
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>That test could come Wednesday. The California office is due to release its decision by the end of the day, said Elizabeth Heidig, its deputy director.
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>But Maryland should have been more proactive, said Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo, a Montgomery County Democrat.
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>”All too often sometimes, in government we sit and we wait,” he said. “We need to not sit and wait.”
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>Some 16 other states are in a similar boat, having adopted California’s stricter vehicle emission standards in the past, according to The Associated Press.
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>If Hogan’s administration doesn’t act by the end of this year, Maryland could fall behind, said Lindsey Mendelson, transportation representative for the Maryland Sierra Club."