Dan Sperling, a former CARB board member and director of the University of California, Davis’ Institute for Transportation Studies, said broadening the market to align with the fuel used in other Western states would bring down prices and reduce the impact of refinery closures, while having minimal impacts on emissions.

“If we want to protect animals in general and give them a way to get across the highway, than almost all highways in California need attention,” said Dr. Fraser Shilling, the road ecology center director at UC Davis.

Longtime California air regulators say [Trump’s] efforts to fundamentally reshape the United States’ approach to auto industry policy through high tariffs on imported cars and parts, slashing EV tax incentives and rewriting federal fuel standards risk going too far and forcing car companies to find a more stable partner.