The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday granted two requests from California to enforce strict standards for vehicle emissions, including a rule aimed at banning sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035, reported the Associated Press [link].
“The California rule is stricter than a federal rule adopted this year that tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric vehicles. EPA said its review found that opponents of the two waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was inconsistent with the federal Clean Air Act,” reported AP.
“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,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”
“This California mandate will hurt efforts to reduce carbon emissions and will hurt our economy,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel, NACS. “Ensuring different technologies need to compete to demonstrate their value would bring better results across the board than arbitrarily deciding to focus on one technology. By ignoring the need to improve efficiency of the rest of the nation’s vehicles, this policy substitutes wishful thinking for the hard work and innovation necessary to deal with climate change.”
AP writes that the waiver is likely to be short-lived. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will move to revoke all California waivers as part of an approach that includes boosting production of fossil fuels.
Trump rescinded California’s authority on emissions in 2019, only to be reversed three years later by the Biden EPA, which restored the state’s authority in 2022.