(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump on Thursday signed three congressional resolutions nullifying California’s electric vehicle and car emissions mandates.
A federal law requires states to either adhere to federal vehicle emissions standards or to adopt California’s more stringent Advanced Clean Cars II rule, which requires automakers to sell progressively higher percentages of electric vehicles from 2026 to 2035, when they will be limited to selling only electric vehicles. California had also instituted an Advanced Clean Trucks rule extending similar requirements on a longer timeline to trucks and a regulation implementing stricter standards for nitrogen oxide vehicle emissions.
Seventeen states had adopted California’s rules, either in whole or in part.
The resolutions Trump signed Thursday don’t impact the underlying federal law but instead revoke the waivers the Environmental Protection Agency had granted to California allowing it to create its own rules.
Trump said Thursday that the difference in emissions standards among the states was making things harder for auto manufacturers because they had to make cars that met two different sets of criteria.
“The automakers didn’t know what do because they’re really building cars for two countries because when you have 17 states, you’re building cars for two countries,” Trump said.
“We officially rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating the California electric vehicle mandate once and for all.”
The resolutions are the latest example of the Trump administration at odds with the state of California over policy, as riots over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles rage on. The signing also comes in the wake of the president’s dramatic but short-lived feud with former Department of Government Efficiency head and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk.
Musk had blasted the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ the Trump-backed budget proposal now before the Senate, on social media saying it was “pork-filled” and an “abomination.” When the president shot back in comments from the Oval Office, Musk commenced an X tirade, posting various rebukes of Trump, including that the president was implicated in the Epstein Files and should be impeached.
Musk has since apologized for some of his harsh comments, but Trump mentioned Musk again Thursday.
“This is not something new. This has been there from day one speaker, right? We’re going to abolish the EV mandate, and Elon still endorsed me,” Trump riffed. “And I once asked him about it. You never talked to me about that. He said, Well, as long as it’s happening to everybody, I’ll be able to compete, which is a very interesting answer. I thought it was a very honest answer.”
