PHILADELPHIA, PA – In just a few years, the sale of new gasoline-powered cars will be banned in the neighboring state of New Jersey. That’s because New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order banning the sale of all new gas-powered cars after 2035.
While the ban does not prohibit New Jerseyans from crossing state lines into states like Pennsylvania to purchase new gasoline-powered cars, they might have to go a bit further. New York has already announced a similar ban, but is Pennsylvania next?
So far, Governor Josh Shapiro has not joined New Jersey and New York in the movement to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2035, but it was one of Shapiro’s campaign promises.
Shapiro, like Murphy in New Jersey and Governor Kathy Hochul in New York, ran on a net-zero emission by 2050 platform. Now, Murphy and Hochul have moved their targets to 2050. Shapiro could be next.
Shapiro will be aided in his climate goals by a Democrat-led majority in the statehouse for the first time in the past 12 years.
“Governor Shapiro has not publicly indicated that he would follow suit in Pennsylvania. Statutory and regulatory changes would need to be made in the Commonwealth to establish this requirement. However, the new Pennsylvania Governor is still in the process of developing his climate change policy,” the Pennsylvania Petroleum Association warned.
Pennsylvania is still looking at a net-zero carbon plan with a target date of 2050.
According to Inside Climate News, Shapiro is also expected to increase the state’s targets for renewable energy use, act on its plan to enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI, which could make Pennsylvania the next state to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2035.