Washington state bill would require all new cars be electric by 2030

Washington state may soon push to end the sale of diesel-fueled cars by the year 2030 after a bill was introduced in the state legislature that would require all cars sold be electric.

The bill, sponsored by more than two dozen Democrats, was introduced in both legislative chambers in January. The state House Transportation Committee held its first hearing on the bill Monday.

ABC News reports that Washington legislators who support the bill said it would speed up the transition from gas-powered vehicles as well as building the infrastructure to support electric vehicles.

Coltura, an environmental nonprofit that helped in drafting the bill, states that 99 percent of vehicles in Washington are gas-powered and the bill would affect over 10 million vehicles in the following 30 years.

Democratic state Rep. Nicole Macri said in a statement, “Clean Cars 2030 will ensure that our policy goals and actions move us rapidly toward a 100 percent clean energy environment and keep pace with what is now a global trend toward vehicle electrification.”

Hydrogen-powered cars, emergency vehicles and vehicles that weigh more than 10,000 pounds would not be affected by the bill, ABC News reports.

“Without the certainty of a close, attainable date, we are likely to approach the transition off gasoline in an unnecessarily slow and haphazard manner, and cause vast amounts of unnecessary carbon release in the process,” Matthew Metz, co-director of Coltura, told the outlet.

Other U.S. states such as California and Massachusetts have recently committed to phasing out diesel-fueled cars in the near future. Both states have released plans to have 100 percent of cars sold produce zero emissions by the year 2035.

In November, the U.K. moved up its deadline to ban the sale of diesel cars by the year 2030.

Automobile manufacturing giant General Motors announced in January that it would seek to shift production to an all-electric light duty fleet by 2035 as part of its goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.