Nearly a third of drivers in the rural Riverside County city of Anza are considered gasoline “superusers,” each burning more than 1,200 gallons of planet-warming gasoline per year and spending nearly 20% of their annual income to commute. And just 0.1% of vehicles owned by Anza residents so far are electric.
That means if California wants to hit its climate targets and quickly make a serious dent in greenhouse gas emissions while getting the biggest bang for our buck from, Janelle London, co-executive director of Coltura, said we should be focusing on getting gasoline superusers into electric vehicles. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, doesn’t specify how much that additional incentive would be, leaving it to the California Air Resources Board to calculate and apply starting Jan. 1, 2025 if it gets signed into law.passed through two committee hearings with unanimous, bipartisan support, with London noting that residents of red-leaning rural areas stand to benefit the most if the legislation passes.
“We’re in this hair-on-fire climate moment, when we’re supposed to be cutting emissions from all sources,” London said. “But gasoline use isn’t going down. And no one seems to be doing a lot about that.