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The Environmental Protection Agency has begun an effort to revoke California’s vehicle emissions waivers adopted by Massachusetts, 15 other states, and the District of Columbia to set emission standards beyond federal requirements for cars and trucks.
California has been able to set stricter standards for the emission of hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide through more than a hundred different waivers that it has submitted to the federal agency since 1967. Massachusetts adopted California’s vehicle emissions standards in 1990 after Congress allowed other states to adopt the approved standards. But, the Trump administration sent three of California's most recent emissions waivers to Congress for review on February 14 under the Congressional Review Act, a statute that allows lawmakers to assess and overturn rules made by federal agencies.
If Congress nullifies the waivers, the states will lose an important tool to help reach their climate goals, advocates say.
The three waivers in question – which were all approved under the Biden administration – are the Heavy-duty Omnibus Regulation, which requires manufacturers to sell lower emissions engines for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks; the Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation, which requires a certain percentage of a manufacturers’ overall sales to include sales of zero-emission vehicles; and the Advanced Clean Cars II Regulation, which increases the percentage of new car sales required to be zero-emission vehicles with a goal of reaching 100 percent zero-emissions vehicles by 2035.
The EPA did not respond to a request for comment but said in a press release that “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.” On the campaign trail, the Trump campaign’s press secretary said Trump would revoke the waiver on gasoline-powered cars “on day one.” |
