(The Center Square) – Congressional review of California car and truck standards waivers approved by the Biden administration appears set to effectively quash three rules, including the 2035 gas car ban.
The Environmental Protection Agency led by Administrator Lee Zeldin said it is following the law in sending the waivers. Twelve states and the District of Columbia would be subsequently impacted.
“The Biden administration failed to send rules on California’s waivers to Congress, preventing members of Congress from deciding on extremely consequential actions that have massive impacts and costs across the entire United States,” Zeldin said in an EPA release. “The Trump EPA is transparently correcting this wrong and rightly following the rule of law.”
Michael Regan was previously the leader of the EPA from 2021-24. It is unclear if the previous administration approved the waivers at the last minute to meet California’s request while understanding the rules could be rejected by the incoming majority-Republican Congress.
The waivers have a 60-day window for congressional review.
The EPA said the “two waivers regarding trucks not only increased the cost of those vehicles but also increased the costs of goods and the cost of living for American families across the country.”
The United States Clean Air Act authorizes California to set and enforce emissions standards more strict than the federal standard, so long as the EPA grants the state a waiver for each new standard. California alone has the right to self-regulate emissions due to its regulations for combating Los Angeles’ infamous smog predating the EPA’s existence.
While other states do not have the power to set air regulations, they do have the ability to choose to follow California’s more stringent regulations – which classify carbon dioxide, a nontoxic greenhouse gas, as pollution.
Advanced Clean Cars II is the most stringent regulation, a policy gradually moving new cars sales to zero emissions by 2035. Its impact in 2025 is in relation to model year 2026 vehicles. New passenger vehicle sales for model year 2026 are to be 35% zero emission or plug-in hybrid electric.
Twelves states and Washington, D.C., follow the standards, covering cover nearly half of America’s new light-duty vehicle and over a quarter of its heavy-duty vehicle market.
Advanced Clean Fleets is similar. It regulates trucking fleets, and may have an even larger impact on most Americans due to the nation’s reliance on California ports and thus California trucking for receiving and distributing Asian imports.
A third rule reducing permitted nitrogen oxide emissions 90% from diesel-powered trucks – which move 64% of the nation’s freight by weight and 72% by value – would also have likely resulted in increased costs for consumers as freight companies retire still-usable vehicles for new, lower-emission or zero-emission models. Transportation tends to account for 7% in the cost of goods, meaning significant increases in transportation costs can result in higher prices for goods.
“California has longstanding authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks,” Regan said at the time of the waivers’ December approval.
He said the approvals “follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”