On June 12, President Donald Trump signed a package of resolutions that overturn California’s plans to phase out the sale of new gasoline-only vehicles by 2035, roll back its low-nitrogen oxide regulations for heavy-duty trucks, and rescind an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver granted in December 2023 allowing the state to enforce stricter vehicle emissions standards. The three resolutions were passed by Congress using the Congressional Review Act. Under the Congressional Review Act, the EPA cannot approve any future waivers that are “substantially the same” as those disapproved in the joint resolutions. Thirty-five Democrats voted with Republicans in the House and one in the Senate (Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan) in favor of the resolutions. California and 10 other states (Massachusetts, Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) immediately sued to preserve California’s rules.
California’s rules would have required automakers to hit increasing percentages of zero-emission vehicles — 35% by model year 2026 and 68% by model year 2030 — before reaching 100% of zero-emission new-car sales in 2035, targets that the auto industry did not think they could meet. Specifically, California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule, introduced in 2020, mandates that 80% of new vehicles sold in the state be battery-powered electric by 2035, with the remaining 20% composed of plug-in hybrids. About a dozen other states originally signed on to California’s targets. Still, they have had fewer electric vehicle (EV) sales than California due to less generous incentives and limited EV charging infrastructure. For example, California has more than a quarter of its new car sales coming from EVs, while New Jersey has 15% and New York has under 12%.
While 12 states originally signed onto the EV rule, there are now 10, after Virginia dropped out and Vermont delayed enforcement by 19 months. Other states are following suit, with Maryland Governor Wes Moore signing an executive order in April to delay enforcement, and lawmakers in New York introducing a bill this year to delay its participation by two years.
Opponents see this as forfeiting the EV market to countries like China. Last year, China accounted for about two-thirds of global electric car sales, an increase from 50% in 2021. Market control is not surprising, given China’s huge domestic EV market, its advantage in EV supply chains (particularly for batteries), and government incentives that enable China’s EV manufacturers to produce lower-cost EVs compared to those in Western nations. Last year, China’s electric car sales exceeded 11 million – more than were sold worldwide just two years earlier.
Proponents see the issue as one of allowing Americans to choose the best vehicle that suits their needs and not be forced by state governments to purchase an electric vehicle. According to the Associated Press, the National Automobile Dealers Association supported the congressional vote, saying Congress should decide on such a national issue, not the states and the American Trucking Association said the rules were not feasible and celebrated Congress’s move to block them. General Motors and Toyota had lobbied against California’s rules on EVs and gas-powered engines. Many automobile companies viewed the mandates as diverting finite capital from the EV transition by forcing them to purchase compliance credits from Tesla, which only manufactures EVs. According to the White House, “Our Constitution does not allow one State special status to create standards that limit consumer choice and impose an electric vehicle mandate upon the entire Nation.”
Conclusion
President Donald Trump signed three resolutions that target California’s effort to speed the adoption of electric vehicles, repealing and reversing state-level mandates that President Biden’s administration supported. In December, Biden’s EPA granted California a waiver allowing the state’s EV mandate, which forces most new car sales in the state to be electric, and enabling other states to opt in on the rule. Congress used the Congressional Review Act to reverse the mandates, which means that the EPA cannot approve any future waivers that are “substantially the same” as those disapproved in the three resolutions. This is a clear win for automobile manufacturers, who did not find it feasible to meet the California EV mandate, and the American public, who can continue to purchase vehicles that best meet their needs, without being dictated by a state government to buy an electric vehicle.
