- California cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 2.4% in 2022 compared to the year before across sectors.
- Electric vehicles played a big role in that, as the biggest drop was seen in the transportation industry.
- Over in New York, thousands of electric Ubers, Lyfts and yellow cabs helped avoid 19,000 metric tons of CO2 so far in 2024.
New York and California are reaping the benefits of aggressively adopting electric vehicles with cleaner air and lower greenhouse gas emissions, recent reports from state government agencies indicate.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), the government agency responsible for promoting and approving clean energy programs in the state, released a report recently stating that electric cars helped cut the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 9.3 million metric tons in 2022 compared to the year before, or by about 2.4%. From 2000 to 2022, the state’s emissions across sectors fell by 20% while its gross domestic product increased by 78%.
In 2004, the CARB approved a landmark regulation to reduce transportation emissions by introducing the nation’s first greenhouse gas emissions standards. The standards came after the state had previously passed the zero-emission vehicle regulation (ZEV) in 1990, requiring automakers to manufacture more cars that pollute less. The agency says those regulations are now paying off.
It added that the 2.4% emissions reduction was the equivalent of removing 2.2 million gas powered cars from California's roads in one year. The largest reduction came from the transportation sector, CARB said, as the state leads the nation in electric car adoption. Wind and solar helped too, as they now account for 30% of the state’s power generation and so did efforts in reducing other industrial and agricultural methane emissions.
The news comes as the U.S. remains sharply divided over EVs, driven by several factors. One of those factors is the myth that EVs pollute as much—or more—than gas cars due to their reliance on non-renewable electricity sources and the environmental impact of mining battery materials. While those are real issues that need addressing, there’s also a broad scientific consensus that EVs significantly reduce pollution compared to gas cars.
Read InsideEVs' myth-busting deep dive on how that exactly works.
“California has a plan to achieve its emission targets and the data show that the programs we put in place—which include increasing the use of clean fuels and making the switch to zero-emissions technology across sectors—are working,” Dr. Steven Cliff, CARB’s executive officer said in a statement.
On the East Coast, New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), the agency responsible for licensing and regulating yellow taxi cabs, for-hire vehicles, commuter vans and paratransit vehicles, said on Wednesday that the city’s increasingly electric taxi fleet is helping reduce CO2 emissions.
So far in 2024, electric Ubers, Lyfts and other ride-hailing services that have adopted Teslas and other EVs accounted for 14 million zero-emissions trips, helping the city save 19,000 metric tons of CO2, the TLC said. For perspective, those are the average annual emissions of nearly 3,800 homes, according to the TLC.
Last October, the City of New York announced plans to fully electrify its high-volume for-hire vehicles (FHVs), like cars operated through Uber and Lyft, by 2030. To facilitate this transition, the TLC lifted the limits on the number of licenses electric cars would get. After the TLC lifted the cap, it received thousands of applications from ride-hail drivers who mostly bought Tesla Model Ys and Model 3s, but also Polestar 2s and Toyota bZ4xs among others.
The shift happened when the city’s charging infrastructure was still subpar, and drivers incentivized to go fully electric weren't getting adequate charging support in return. An InsideEVs investigation at the time revealed that some rideshare drivers had to wait in long lines for up to 90 minutes at a popular Tesla Supercharger in South Brooklyn to charge their EVs.
But a number of new charging stations have opened since, and more are on the way. Even though the speed of charger deployment has been far less than ideal, the TLC said the number of fast chargers in the city has increased from 169 to 236 as of June 2024, a 40% increase. Plus, 180 fast-charging plugs have been announced to go online over the next two years.
Only 7.6% of new car sales in the U.S. last year—about 1.2 million vehicles—were EVs. While it was a record year for EV sales by its own measure, there's potential for more. If current EV policies hold after November's presidential elections, that number could soar in the coming years. So what we're seeing now in California and New York is just a preview of the massive opportunity ahead to cut emissions even more, across the entire nation.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com
