By David Shepardson

DETROIT (Reuters) – A senior California official said on Tuesday he expects the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will approve the state's landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has sought a waiver from the EPA under the Clean Air Act to implement its plan and has seven other waiver requests pending for other environmental regulations.

> "We certainly made it clear that we expect EPA to grant these waivers," CARB Executive Officer Steven Cliff said at a Reuters Next conference in Detroit. "What's important is we cannot enforce a rule without that waiver in place."

An EPA spokesperson said the agency "is following the prescribed process in the Clean Air Act in reviewing all California waiver requests."

California's rules, adopted by a dozen other states, require that 80% of all new vehicles sold in the state be electric by 2035, with no more than 20% plug-in hybrids. They will start in the 2026 model year, cutting smog-causing pollution from light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2037. It also mandates that 35% of new vehicles sold must be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2026, increasing to 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

Cliff emphasized that without the waivers, "we would have a lot of challenges meeting our Clean Air Act requirements … All of these eight are intended to get us to federal requirements for clean air."

Automakers have previously questioned the feasibility of California's 2035 plans. Other pending waiver requests involve locomotives, off-road engines, commercial harbor craft, clean fleet, and transport refrigeration units.

Cliff stated that the EPA is actively working on the waiver requests and has held hearings and public comments. "This is a super high priority of the governor. This is a high priority of my chair to get these waivers," he mentioned.

In April, a U.S. court upheld the EPA's 2022 decision to grant California a waiver for its own tailpipe emissions limits and electric-vehicle requirements through 2025. According to Cliff, the EPA has approved over 100 waivers for California in the past 50 years.

In April, the EPA finalized new emissions rules, reducing the target for EV adoption from 67% by 2032 to as low as 35%.