The Navarro Report | California Desk — July 30, 2026
A new statewide survey from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California has found that Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature climate policy — a mandate phasing out sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 — has become deeply unpopular with the electorate it will most directly affect. The poll found that roughly two-thirds of Californians oppose the mandate, with 65% of likely voters against it and only about a third in support.
The findings mark a significant political liability for a policy that has been central to California’s climate strategy and to Newsom’s broader environmental legacy. The 2035 rule, which would require all new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission within roughly a decade, has faced legal and political headwinds since it was first adopted, but the scale of voter opposition revealed in the new survey is among the starkest yet.
Critics of the mandate have seized on the poll as evidence that the policy is out of step with practical concerns about vehicle affordability, charging infrastructure, and consumer choice, particularly in inland and rural parts of the state where electric-vehicle infrastructure remains sparser than in coastal metro areas. Supporters counter that public opinion on ambitious climate policy often lags the long-term benefits, and that the mandate remains essential to meeting the state’s broader emissions-reduction targets.
The poll lands as the state Legislature prepares to reconvene from recess, with a substantial backlog of bills awaiting action before the end of the year. While the gas-car mandate itself is not primarily a legislative matter — it stems from California Air Resources Board rulemaking — the political fallout from the survey could shape how lawmakers approach related transportation and climate measures in the coming session.
Newsom’s office has not issued a detailed response to the poll’s findings. The governor has consistently defended the state’s clean-vehicle rules as essential to public health and long-term economic competitiveness, even as he has faced criticism on other fronts over the cost of California’s broader climate agenda.
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