Blue states are preparing to battle the Trump administration over authority to limit tailpipe emissions, a ruling that will have major consequences for the types of cars and trucks sold to American drivers.
All sides expect President-elect Donald Trump to attempt to strip states of their authority to adopt California’s strict vehicle pollution regulations.
Many states’ efforts to combat climate change rely on a federal process that allows them to adopt stringent regulations on transportation, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
That long-standing authority allows California — and a dozen states that have followed suit — to apply regulations that go beyond federal restrictions and cover everything from certain pollutants to the sale of certain vehicles. States that adhere to California’s more stringent standards make up a significant portion of the U.S. auto market and exert a significant influence on the cars offered to American consumers.
“This is becoming a de facto national standard,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. “The combined power of California and other states is quite significant.”
During his first term, Trump tried to revoke California’s waiver, a move many states challenged as illegal. Efforts to deny the waiver faced legal challenges until President Joe Biden took office. This time, Trump will have a “much more coherent plan” to block state efforts to neat up cars and trucks, Elkind said.
California is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to finalize several pending waivers before Trump returns to the White House. Officials in blue states are preparing to defend their authority in court if Trump tries to invalidate the waivers. And attorneys general in some red states are pushing to end waivers altogether, posing a legal challenge to California’s authority to set its own rules.
“Without [California’s waiver authority]”we would probably be a decade or more behind the current U.S. auto market,” said Mary Nichols, former chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, the agency that issues state auto regulations. “This is essential to achieving our climate goals.”
Nichols is currently a distinguished advisor to the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
State efforts
When Congress passed federal air quality regulations in the 1960s, it gave California the authority to go beyond national standards because it was the only state that had already adopted its own greenhouse gas regulations. The state’s geographic location, with mountains keeping harmful pollutants out of densely populated areas, has also contributed to California’s unique status. Over more than 50 years, the state has received more than 100 federal waivers covering everything from particulate matter to catalytic converters and check engine lights.
EPA allows other states to adopt regulations set by California. Seventeen other states and the District of Columbia have adopted parts of California’s regulations – representing 40% of the lightweight vehicle market and over 25% of the massive vehicle market.
“These waivers are a really important part of our strategy to reduce emissions in line with what climate science tells us we need to do,” said Joel Creswell, climate pollution reduction program manager at the Washington State Department of Ecology. “They are also very important for air quality near road communities.”
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var tw a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;i.e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
In the waning days of the Biden administration, California leaders have been urging the EPA to finalize a number of pending waivers that cover issues such as electric vehicle sales, truck fleets, yard equipment and refrigerated trucks. The agency approved several of those waivers in December and January, including a landmark rule that would ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.
California’s Democratic attorney general, Rob Bonta, who spoke to Stateline in November, said the law requires feds to grant and maintain waivers unless a state’s actions are “arbitrary and capricious.”
“If the Trump administration attempts to revoke them or it is illegal to deny them, we will take very aggressive action to protect California’s ability to apply for waivers,” he said.
Elkind, the legal expert, said the Biden administration likely delayed the waivers until the last minute because officials want to build a sturdy case that will make it harder for Trump to reverse them.
“EPA needs to be more careful and specific in its justification for granting them,” he said, building on the argument that “California has an obligation to reduce emissions of these very specific pollutants and will not be able to meet its clean air requirements without zero emission vehicles.”
Repulsion
California’s waivers have been met with opposition from many industry groups, including automakers, carrier associations, railroads, agricultural entities and fossil fuel suppliers. In many cases, they argue that the standards require a shift to cleaner technologies that are not yet widely available or cost-effective. For example, carrier groups say there are few semi-truck engines available that meet the up-to-date nitrogen oxide emissions standard.
“They [federal regulators] introduced aggressive standards and gave manufacturers little time to develop such a product,” said Mike Tunnell, senior director of energy and environmental affairs at the American Trucking Associations trade group. “As it turns out, they didn’t give them enough time.”
Tunnell said truck dealers in California are struggling with product shortages. As a result, some companies continue to apply existing trucks, keeping grubby engines on the road. His group opposes another pending waiver sought by California that would require companies to convert their truck fleets to zero-emission models. Tunnell said current trucks meeting this standard are significantly more pricey than typical models.
Truck drivers in New York, which has adopted the California standard, are already struggling to afford the equipment they need, said Kendra Hems, president of the Trucking Association of New York. She noted that the state lacks charging infrastructure to support the transition to electric trucks, and current models have restricted range, which would force drivers to make repeated stops on their routes.
“We’re not against it, we’re just not ready,” Hems said. “They are asking the industry to comply with something for which there is simply no supporting infrastructure.”
Automakers made a similar argument about California’s electric vehicle sales mandate, saying in a statement that it “will take a miracle” to phase out up-to-date gas-powered cars by 2035.
Industry groups have advocated for consistent national standards, and 17 Republican-led states support the cause. In 2022, a coalition of attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging California’s authority to set more stringent rules.
“This is not the United States of California,” Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who led the legal effort, said in a 2021 news release challenging California’s exemptions.
In a letter to the EPA opposing Biden’s restoration of the exemption, Yost argued that California’s rules create a de facto national standard for automakers, resulting in more pricey cars for consumers in every state. This constitutes a violation of the right of states to equal sovereignty, he said.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would review whether fuel producers – who joined the case against the layoffs – had sufficient cause to sue. The court, however, declined to consider the legality of California’s fundamental waiver power.
While the legal battle continues, Elkind asserted that opponents of California’s long-term status do not have a sturdy argument.
“The waiver has been granted to California repeatedly for more than half a century,” he said. “The Clean Air Act has a solid legal foundation, and the rationale is extremely well documented.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
