Liane Randolph, Fighter for Clean Air

The state became the first to set a deadline for phasing out the sale of new internal combustion cars. The number of EVs or other clean cars (plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) sold must reach at least 35% in 2026 and 68% in 2030 before fulfilling CARB’s final requirement.

Liane Randolph took over at CARB, the agency that regulates air pollution and greenhouse gases, in early 2021—just as her new boss, Governor Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order to wind down the sale of new cars with gas engines. It was her job to make it happen. An environmental lawyer, Randolph rose through the state’s Natural Resources Agency and Public Utilities Commission before taking on California’s most ambitious car regulatory program in decades. The new mandate had to ensure that the transition is safe and equitable. More than 40 CARB staffers spent two years writing rules requiring, among other things, that electric-vehicle batteries be durable and recyclable, that these batteries offer a minimum range per charge and that disadvantaged communities have incentives to participate.