Ford Backed Group Wants Congress To Kill California EV Mandate

For some time now, the state of California has been seeking to set its own emissions standards, which include banning the sale of new ICE vehicles by 2035. Under former President Joe Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grated it that right following a decision by the Supreme Court that allows the state to set its own emissions standards late last year, but now, the Ford-backed lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) is asking Congress to put an end to that waiver as well.

According to Reuters, AAI recently sent a letter to Congress asking it to repeal the waiver granted to California by the EPA, which would impact 11 other states that have adopted its stricter emissions rules. It claims that those mandates would mean that automakers will be “forced to substantially reduce the number of overall vehicles for sale to inflate their proportion of electric vehicles sales.”

“Allowing these gas vehicle bans (something never attempted before in the United States) to proceed will increase automobile prices and reduce vehicle choices for consumers across the country at precisely the same time they are adjusting to the marketplace shock of 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts,” AAI added. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on legislation to repeal that waiver this week, though it’s unclear if it can do so using the Congressional Review Act.

AAI has long called for the Trump Administration to move to roll back a number of EV-related policies imposed by the Biden Administration, including moves to mandate more electric vehicle sales, as well as greenhouse gas emissions rules, and it also supported Maryland’s decision to push back its own EV mandates recently. Ford CEO Jim Farley previously stated that he wasn’t concerned about such mandates, however, as he believes that consumers will ultimately dictate the pace of EV adoption.