Governor Gavin Newsom is making a move to tackle climate change announcing the ban of gasoline-powered cars within 15 years.
"We will eliminate in the state of California the sales of internal combustion engines," Newsom announced this week.
An executive order the governor says is critical to the state as wildfires and record-breaking heat has hit California in recent weeks.
"That's just one of the indicators of the increasing impact on California on climate change," said Michael R. Boswell, department head of city & regional planning at Cal Poly.
According to experts, the order will tackle fossil fuel pollution coming from the transportation industry that makes up more than 50% of greenhouse gas emissions.
It's a move that some believe is not enough.
"This is a good start but it is not going far enough. We need to change the whole transportation industry by 2030," said Green Party member Peggy Koteen.
Others stating the change is simply not feasible.
The oresident of Western States Petroleum Association said in a statement:
"Dismantling our oil and natural gas industry right now means betting everything on alternative energy resources that we don’t have in place and supporting infrastructure that’s far from being at the scale we need."
"I think its a necessary move. the state has very ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets in order to do our part to address the climate crisis," said Boswell.
According to Newsom, the order will only impact the sale of new vehicles and people who already own gas-powered cars will be able to keep using them.
