Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Monday warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that his plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 raises “significant questions of legality,” Breitbart reports.
In a letter sent to Newsom, Wheeler questioned how the state could add millions of electric vehicles despite having “a record of rolling blackouts.” He said it “begs the question of how you expect to run an electric car fleet that will come with significant increases in electricity demand, when you can’t even keep the lights on today.”
Newsom has yet to reply to the EPA.
As of Monday afternoon, approximately 87,500 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers in California were without power in effort to avoid starting additional wildfires, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last week, Newsom signed an executive order directing state regulators to come up with rules that would ban the sale of all new gas-powered passenger cars and trucks by 2035 with the goal for the state to operate on 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
That accounts for more than one out of every 10 new cars sold in the U.S.
California would be the first state with such a mandate, while at least 15 other countries have already made similar commitments, including Germany, France, and Norway, according to Breitbart.