Gas it up, Golden Staters.
California’s controversial rule requiring all new vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 was overturned by the Senate Thursday, in a rebuke to the largest effort to phase out fossil fuels in US history.
Lawmakers voted 51-44 to scrap a Biden administration-era waiver allowing Sacramento to enact the sweeping rule intended to phase out new gas-powered cars and trucks.
All 50 Republicans present voted in favor of the resolution rolling back the rule for cars and light trucks, joined by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).
A separate resolution blocking rules curbing tailpipe emissions from medium and heavy-duty vehicles was approved 51-45 along party lines.
Both resolutions were approved by the House earlier this month and now head to President Trump’s desk for his expected signature.
Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has broad powers to review regulations imposed by the executive branch and reject them via a joint resolution.
So-called “resolutions of disapproval” need only a simple majority to pass the House and Senate, though they are subject to presidential vetos.
Last year, Biden’s EPA gave California multiple waivers to enact stricter emissions standards than those specified in the Clean Air Act.
Republicans argued that allowing California to keep the waiver would be tantamount to unconstitutionally letting the Golden State set federal policy.
At least 11 other states constituting roughly 40% of the US auto market — Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — had intended to mirror California’s phase-out plan.
California lawmakers, led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, have vowed to sue to keep the waiver in place.
Keep up with today’s most important news
Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update.
Thanks for signing up!
Following the Senate votes, Newsom posted a graphic on X announcing “Trump’s GOP is making American smoggy again.”
“What we have at stake is … a state’s ability, its right to make its own laws and to protect its own citizens, without having this body overturn that right,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said ahead of the floor vote, adding that the outcome should “send a chill down the spine of legislators in every state.”
To enact the resolution, Republicans had to overcome the Senate’s parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who ruled that the EPA waivers didn’t count as rules covered by the Congressional Review Act.
As a workaround, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) took up a vote Wednesday on a separate resolution to nix a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulation on standards for hydrogen vehicles.
That resolution was used to tweak the procedural rules, allowing the Senate to consider the EPA waivers under the Congressional Review Act.
Democrats cried foul, with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) describing the move as a “point of no return” and calling the Republicans “fair weather institutionalists.”
