Shortly after president-elect Donald Trump announced this week that he has selected a noted critic of electric vehicle sales mandates to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Democratic governor of Connecticut said his state would not pursue an EV sales requirement.
Connecticut had been in the process of implementing an EV mandate, like the rules that New Jersey has already adopted, to phase out sales of new gas-powered vehicles until all new cars and light-duty trucks sold in 2035 are EVs. However, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has now told multiple news outlets that an EV sales mandate is off the table for his administration.
The news from Connecticut followed Trump’s announced pick of former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to lead the US EPA. Zeldin is a critic of EV sales mandates and campaigned on that issue when he ran for governor of New York against Kathy Hochul in 2022.
Noting the close ties that Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, has with the Trump administration, Lamont told reporters that he thinks EVs will retain a place in U.S. energy policy, but that the EPA’s new focus will be incentives, not sales mandates.
Lamont’s decision to scuttle the EV requirement was applauded by Republican lawmakers in Connecticut who have argued that electric vehicles are unaffordable for most residents and would be hard to implement because the state power grid needs major upgrades.
“This is a victory for Connecticut taxpayers. Connecticut Republicans – and thousands of taxpayers – have spoken out against the EV mandate,” the Connecticut Senate GOP Caucus said in a Nov. 13 statement.
New Jersey adopted the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) standards last year and the gradual phase-in of EV sales requirements begins with the 2027 model year in the Garden State. Unless the state reverses course, the sale of gasoline powered cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) would be prohibited in New Jersey starting in the year 2035.
“What Connecticut has decided to do may not drive New Jersey’s decision to abandon the EV mandate here,” said NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor. “But because the incoming Trump administration may eliminate California’s EV mandate, which New Jersey has committed to, it would mean that New Jersey would reverse course on the mandate here by default.
“We continue to maintain that there is nothing wrong with encouraging electric vehicles for people who want them. But we strongly oppose a mandate that requires what new car someone must buy, especially when the infrastructure needed to support the EV rule is not anywhere where it needs to be.”
New Jersey also has an Advanced Clean Truck rule with an even earlier implementation date, requiring a percentage of sales of medium and heavy-duty trucks starting in January 2025. NJBIA recently called on the Legislature to pass bills to delay the Advanced Clean Truck phase-in until at least 2027, as the states of Massachusetts and Oregon have already done.
“As we forecasted when challenging the rule originally, the demand, affordability, and feasibility for the purchase of electric trucks in such a compressed time frame isn’t there for many businesses,” Cantor said in an Oct. 30 statement in support of bills A-4967/ S-3817.
“If this bill does not become law, or if alterations are not made to the Advanced Clean Truck rule as currently written, it will needlessly cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the trucking industry, it will decimate the logistics industry, including our ports, and those costs will be passed on to consumers,” Cantor said.
