The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted two requests from California on Dec. 18 to ban the sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035 in a move to enforce stricter vehicle emission standards.
The EPA’s legal waivers allow California and more than a dozen other states that follow its vehicle emission standards to set stricter rules than those adopted earlier this year by the federal government, which did not require the sale of electric vehicles (EV).
In its review, the EPA said the opponents of the waivers insufficiently demonstrated that the rule requiring the sale of EVs or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was incompatible with the federal Clean Air Act.
“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.”
President-elect Donald Trump is also expected to reverse the waivers—which represent some of the most sweeping climate policies in U.S. history—after he assumes office next month. Trump previously rescinded California’s emissions authority in 2019, but President Joe Biden’s EPA restored the authority three years later.
“California has imposed the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all-electric cars,” Trump told the California Republican Party convention in September.
In Michigan a couple of days earlier when speaking about the electric car mandates, he said he would terminate them on day one of his presidency.
The Golden State is expected to resist Trump’s efforts, potentially setting the stage for an ongoing legal battle between California and the new administration.
“California has long led the nation in pioneering climate policies and innovation,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has suggested the ban marks the beginning of the end of the internal combustion engine, said in an October statement. “Those efforts will continue for years to come.”
The EPA, through the 1970 Clean Air Act, has allowed California for decades to enact tougher clean air standards than those set by the federal government through a legal waiver, as the state has some of the nation’s most polluted air. According to federal law, other states can adopt similar standards to California’s under specific conditions.
Environmental groups, including Earthjustice, celebrated the EPA granting the waivers.
“This might read like checking a bureaucratic box, but EPA’s approval is a critical step forward in protecting our lungs from pollution and our wallets from the expenses of combustion fuels,” Paul Cort, director of Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign, said in a statement. “The gradual shift in car sales to zero-emissions models will cut smog and household costs while growing California’s clean energy workforce.”
With Trump’s expected revocation of the waiver, the ensuing legal battle between his incoming administration and California is a preamble to similar moves the new administration is expected to make in overturning Biden-era climate policies.
Trump has repeatedly called “climate change” a “hoax” and has vowed to remove Biden’s policies on the topic after he takes office in January. Trump revoked an Obama-era version of California’s auto emission rules during his first term, and he has vowed to try to end the $7,500 consumer tax credit for buying electric vehicles that he and his allies have dubbed “the electric vehicle mandate.”
The Supreme Court will consider on Friday whether business groups can legally challenge California’s use of the waiver to limit carbon dioxide.
