Trump, GOP Plan To Rescind California’s EPA Waiver

As Ford Authority previously reported, the Ford-backed lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation has long expected U.S. President Donald Trump to revoke a waiver issued to California by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that enables the state to set its own emissions standards. California plans to use this waiver to ban the sale of new ICE models by 2035, with a few exceptions for certain types of hybrids, as automakers would be required to achieve an 80 percent EV and 20 percent plug-in hybrid sales mix by that year. Now, a new report indicates that Trump is still planning on rescinding that waiver.

According to the New York Times, Trump and the U.S. Congress are planning to vote to overturn California’s ICE ban, which they will reportedly do via a 1996 law called the Congressional Review Act. That act permits lawmakers to reverse recently-adopted regulations with a simple majority vote, though it’s unclear if this action is legal. California’s ICE ban isn’t a federal regulation, but rather, a waiver granted by the Biden Administration under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which could mean that it isn’t subject to congressional review.

Quite a bit hangs in the balance with this decision, as 11 other states plan to adopt California’s emissions rules and ban the sale of pure ICE models by 2035, a group that collectively accounts for nearly half of total U.S. new vehicle sales at the moment. That fact is precisely what’s driving members of the Trump administration to argue that the measure is in fact a de facto national policy that should be reviewed by Congress.

Trump has already ordered the General Services Administration (GSA) to shut down EV chargers at government buildings and sell off its existing fleet of such vehicles, and he’s also reportedly mulling the idea of canceling a contract between USPS and OshKosh Defense aimed at increasing the Post Office’s EV fleet. In the meantime, Trump is also planning to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported automobiles from other countries, as well as goods from Mexico and Canada.