Vermont tied its increasingly rickety wagon to California’s air quality standards for motor vehicles. Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) “requires manufacturers to produce vehicles certified to increasingly more stringent emission categories, according to schedules based on vehicle fleet emission averages for each manufacturer.“
Vermont legislators handed authority over Vermonters to wingnuts in California and they are about to pay a price (Vermonters, that is).
Phase one of ACCII is fast approaching, and any action by the Trump administration (EPA mileage standard changes, for example) will have no effect. This is a California standard. Beginning in 2026, Auto dealers in Vermont will need to take delivery of more EVs and Hybrids and fewer Combustion engine vehicles. Dealers have no choice.
Beginning in 2025, the ACT rule will require manufacturers to produce and sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks and buses annually through 2035, which will have far-reaching public health, environment, and economic benefits for Vermonters. Several states, including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and Vermont, have adopted the ACT rule.
The ACC II program promotes the electrification of light-duty cars and would require automakers to offer a gradually increasing percentage of zero-emission vehicles within the Vermont market, eventually putting the state’s light car and light truck sales on a pathway toward 100 percent electric vehicle (EV) sales by 2035. This is in line with the legally-mandated requirements of Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020 and one important program to begin to ratchet down climate pollution in rural Vermont.
But not just Vermont. Massachusetts and New York are also all in. Equally liberal and out of their minds, these States singed on to ACCII as well. But fear not Green Mountain Boys (and girls). New Hampshire hasn’t adopted any of that. Live Free or Die, and all that. In fact, the Granite State is the only state in New England that has not adopted at least a few of the ACCII standards.
Things get “interesting” beginning with the 2026 Model year
But it is not all bad news. As adopted, ACCII does not require Vermonters to buy or drive whatever Vermont car dealers are forced to sell. They can cross the border to New Hampshire and get a car they actually need. You will still need to pay the 6%use Tax Vermont demands for vehicle purchases, but we can’t help you with that. That is a problem only Vermonter’s can fix.
But we will happily sell you whatever make, model, stripped down or feature-loaded vehicle is available on the market. Assuming you don’t do the obvious. Keep your current car for as long as possible.
I’m not clear on how the State plans to address the decline in revenue as Vermonters stop replacing older vehicles or what the plan is for mitigating the emissions they spew. That is what this is supposed to address. Decreasing the tiny state’s miniscule contribution to “global warming.”
I suppose they could handle it the same way they do the Burlington Biomass plant – one of th biggest polluters in the state. Choose not to count those emissions.
Feel free to wonder why they don’t just do that with everything and call it a day.
