The Colorado Energy Office released an update to its electric vehicle plan yesterday and one of their top goals is to have zero gas-powered cars sold in the state by the year 2050.
According to the Denver Post:
One of the goals is to have at least 35,000 electric or hydrogen-fueled medium- and heavy-duty vehicles on the road by 2030. A target is that 100% of the new sales in the category be zero-emission vehicles by 2050.
Another objective is to boost the sales of electric passenger vehicles in Colorado to 65,000, or 25% of the market share, by 2025 and have nearly 100% of the vehicles be electric by 2050.
The move to halt gas-powered car sales by 2050 was criticized by some Colorado environmental groups for not going far enough.
The Colorado chapter of the Natural Resources Defense Council and GreenLatinos expressed their disappointment in statements to Colorado Public Radio.
“Colorado faces an air pollution crisis, ongoing drought, and devastating wildfires. Coloradans want strong climate action and ‘part way’ is not an option,” said Alana Miller, Colorado Policy Director at Natural Resources Defense Council.
Juan Roberto Madrid, a clean transportation and energy policy advocate at GreenLatinos, said he was also disappointed.
“It seems we could move faster, given there is momentum with increased market share and this could translate into improved air quality for disproportionately impacted communities and reduce the burden of disease progression for those living in the worst-polluted areas of the metro area and the state,” he wrote in an email.
Axios Denver reported yesterday that, “car thefts in Colorado are on track to outpace every other state in the country for a second straight year, and public safety experts say the crimes are also growing more violent.”