We’re a big state with big challenges. Each morning we explain the top issues and how Californians are trying to solve them.One weekly email, all the Golden State newsGet the news that matters to all Californians. Start every week informed.Gov. Gavin Newsom, at left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, on Oct. 25, 2023. Photo by the Office of the California Governor via AP PhotoChina modeled some of its climate programs on policies first adopted by California.
“They look at what California is doing, and they treat it as a benchmark,” said Mary Nichols, former chairperson of the California Air Resources Board, which sets climate and air quality control policies. “They definitely are watching what happens in California.” The California Air Resources Board “is going to be examining the data that is submitted by companies that are subject to our statutes, and the Chinese are going to be very interested in following what California is doing — as they always are,” Nichols said.“China is very clean in some parts of their system and very dirty in others, so data is everything here,” Stern said.
California’s electric car mandate has helped kick off an automobile industry race to make cheaper, longer-lasting batteries that take less time to charge. The demand for electric vehicles has, in turn, sparked a worldwide rush to mine the needed materials, and China is at the center of that rush.The Biden Administration is aiming to change that dynamic. The federal Inflation Reduction Act requires that by next year at least half of thebe sourced in the U.S., or from a country that the U.S.