Senate Republicans vote to revoke California’s right to set its own tailpipe pollution rules
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Summary
The US Senate has voted to revoke California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions rules, in a move that environmental campaigners say is illegal.
Seventeen states and Washington, DC, have adopted California’s regulations, which influence the global car manufacturing industry.
The state has been granted approvals to require an increasing number of medium and heavy-duty vehicles as well as all passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035.
Republican lawmakers used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to revoke the waivers, which were originally granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.
However, the Senate parliamentarian and Government Accountability Office have previously ruled that the waivers do not qualify as recent rules under the CRA.
The resolutions will be sent to President Donald Trump, who tried and failed to take away California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards during his first term in office.