Eight U.S. states from both coasts unveiled their plan Thursday to get 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on the roads by 2025.
The plan is a follow-up to the
2013 memorandum of understanding announced by the eight respective governors, including California Gov. Jerry Brown and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The other six states involved are Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
That group of eight accounts for nearly a quarter of the U.S. auto market.
The states are aspiring to have 15 percent of their new-car sales in 10 years to be zero-emission vehicles, which include electric cars and hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. Hybrids also can count toward that goal.
"Automakers have invested billions of dollars in these technologies, so we have a huge stake in selling as many as possible," Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers,
told The Associated Press. "We still have a steep climb. But we're increasingly headed in the right direction."
The plan calls for those states to expedite the building of charging stations and other requirements to ease the transition to plug-in hybrid, battery powered cars, and other clean-burning vehicles.
"Today, we're putting a foot on the pedal to get more clean cars on the road," Brown said in a statement. "This is real action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
The multistate effort could improve on the approximately 96,000 of 15.5 million vehicles sold in 2013, or less than 1 percent of total U.S. auto sales.
Increasing the number of hydrogen fueling and charging stations in high-traffic states can only help, the officials believe.
"Putting 3.3 million ZEVs on the roads of Oregon and our partner states in the next 11 years requires both collaboration and action," Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said in the release. "This action plan gives Oregon and other partner states specific next steps to not only build on and expand current efforts, but to see them through."
Urgent: Assess Your Heart Attack Risk in Minutes. Click Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.