The United States Senate voted Thursday to repeal California’s plan to end the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The vote was 51-44 in favor of blocking the state’s EV mandate which was set to require 35 percent of all cars sold in state to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2026. The House already voted to block the plan earlier this month.
The decision from congress is a controversial one as it uses the Congressional Review Act to revoke California’s wavier from the Environmental Protection Agency. This means it only required a simple majority vote instead of the usual 60-vote threshold. The Senate also sidestepped the guidance of the senate parliamentarian and Government Accountability Office which stated the CRA could only be used for federal regulations not state ones.
The resolution will now head to President Trump where it is believed he will sign it into law, officially ending California’s ability to set its own tailpipe emissions standards. This will have a cascading effect across the country as 11 other states had adopted California’s mandate. California plans to challenge the decision.
“This Senate vote is illegal,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. “Republicans went around their own parliamentarian to defy decades of precedent. We won’t stand by as Trump Republicans make America smoggy again — undoing work that goes back to the days of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan — all while ceding our economic future to China.“
Industry Response
The reaction from the auto industry was overwhelmingly positive as many see California’s strict guidelines as unfeasible within the given timeline. Consumer demand for EVs has leveled off in recent years as infrastructure struggles to keep up with drivers’ needs and sales incentives begin to disappear. Currently EVs make up about 25 percent of new car sales in California and 10 percent nationwide.
“NADA applauds the Senate for its passage of legislation which stops California regulators from banning gas and hybrid vehicles in twelve states,” said Mike Stanton, NADA President and CEO in a statement. “This unrealistic mandate, coupled with an insufficient and unreliable charging infrastructure, would have drastically reduced consumer choice and raised prices for new and used cars and trucks for all Americans.”
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers also applauded the move, citing it as a win for consumer choice.
“Today, the United States Senate delivered a victory for American consumers, manufacturers, and U.S. energy security by voting to overturn the prior administration’s EPA rule authorizing California’s gas car ban and preventing its spread across our country,” both said in a joint statement. “We cannot thank Senators John Barrasso, Shelley Moore Capito and Leader John Thune enough for their leadership on this important issue.”
California EV Future
For California this puts the future of its emission standards in doubt as the CRA forbids passing rules that are “substantially the same” as ones already overturned. This means if the state wants to hit its 2035 targets it will have to do so without banning the sale of gas-powered cars.
“This is a huge setback, and not just for California, but for all the states that have adopted California clean-air standards,” said Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California. “It means we’ll fall further behind other countries in the adoption of new EV technologies.”
California has long had the unique ability to set its own emissions standards thanks to the 1970 Clean Air Act. This allowed the state to receive waivers from the EPA to set stricter air standards than the federal government to combat some of the country’s worst air pollution. The standards could also be adopted by other states which is where many Republicans took exception to the recent EV mandate, stating that California was now driving national policy.
“Over the past two decades, California has used its waiver authority to push its extreme climate policies on the rest of the country, which was never the intent of the Clean Air Act,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia.
If this ability is taken away, California will have to figure out new ways to regulate its air quality. The state will do whatever it can to continue pushing the transition to zero-emission vehicles and avoid returning to when the state was covered in smog.
“We have a legal responsibility under the federal Clean Air Act to protect our community and reduce criteria pollutants to the levels required by federal law,” said Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board. “And so we’re going to roll up our sleeves and look into the toolbox and figure out every option that we can think of that would meet that legal obligation.”
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