By Jacob Fischler, NJ Monitor
The U.S. Senate voted early Thursday to prevent California from enforcing regulations on tailpipe emission from new cars and trucks, upending state regulations for the nearly 40% of Americans whose states follow California standards.
The House has already passed an identical measure, meaning the Senate vote sends the resolution to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The 51-46 vote, with Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin joining all Republicans present to vote in favor, cleared a Congressional Review Act resolution repealing Environmental Protection Agency waivers that allow California to set regulations for emissions from cars and light-duty trucks.
The state policy includes a ramp-up to having no new gas-powered cars sold in the state by 2035.
Ray Cantor with the New Jersey Business & Industry Association thanked the Senate for voting “pragmatically and with common sense to overturn California’s ban on sales of new gas cars.”
“New Jersey has been working toward reducing carbon emissions, as we should. We have seen organic growth in the usage of electric vehicles, also as it should be. But continuing efforts to mandate a ban of new gas-powered cars in such an expedited time frame would be to ignore feasibility, practicality and affordability in New Jersey,” he said.
Doug O’Malley, state director of Environment New Jersey, told ROI-NJ that the action by the Senate was “a legally questionable vote that will be litigated; it will not stand,” adding that “the feds are moving backwards while the industry is moving forward. This is a clear 180 on the national level.” The Senate overruled the guidance of the parliamentarian, a nonpartisan staffer who interprets the Senate’s rules, and voted to overturn a waiver that permitted California to set its own air pollution standards for cars that are stricter than national regulations.
Related:
Senate Republicans Kill California’s Ban on Gas-Powered Cars (NY Times)
US Senate votes to block California 2035 electric vehicle rules (Reuters)
Democrats blasted the near-party-line vote for contradicting the Senate parliamentarian, who’d ruled the waiver that the EPA had granted to California to set its own tailpipe standards was not a regulation that could be rolled back under the Congressional Review Act, or CRA.
The CRA allows for a simple majority in the Senate to vote to repeal recent executive branch rules, bypassing the chamber’s usual 60-vote threshold for legislation.
‘Chaos and uncertainty’ around the U.S.
The EPA under President Joe Biden issued waivers under a Clean Air Act provision that allows California, which had more stringent standards than what Congress enacted in the 1970 law, to set its own standards for air pollution.
No other state is allowed to set independent standards, but any state may adopt California’s.
For the light-duty vehicle emissions rule, 17 other states — Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington — and the District of Columbia adopted some portion of the standard.
