By David Shepardson

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

The California Air Resources Board has sought a waiver from the EPA under the Clean Air Act to implement its plan to end sales of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 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, which have been adopted by a dozen other states, require that 80% of all new vehicles sold in the state be electric by 2035 and no more than 20% plug-in hybrid electric.

They begin in the 2026 model year and would cut smog-causing pollution from light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2037 and mandate that 35% of new vehicles sold must be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2026, rising to 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

Cliff said 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 previously questioned the feasibility of California’s 2035 plans.

Other pending California waiver requests are for locomotives, off-road engines, commercial harbor craft, clean fleet and transport refrigeration units.

Cliff added the EPA is working on the waiver requests and 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,” Cliff said.

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

The EPA in April finalized new emissions rules slashing its target for EV adoption from 67% by 2032 to as little as 35%.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Detroit; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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