Federal Government Approves California’s Ban on the Sale of New Gas Cars by 2035

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday approved California’s authority to set tougher emissions standards on new cars, trucks and SUVs than those created by the federal government — a move the incoming Trump administration will almost certainly seek to revoke.

The waiver allows California and 11 other states to require that all new passenger vehicles sold by 2035 be zero-emission. Together, these states represent roughly 40% of new vehicle registrations in the U.S.

“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 S. Regan said. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”

The majority of planet-warming emissions produced by the U.S. come from transportation, and the same is true for California.

“This rule is vital to ensure that we can reduce the amount of air pollution from the cars and trucks that we all drive in the state,” said David Reichmuth, a senior engineer in the Clean Transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It is also vitally important to reduce the amount of global warming pollution that is produced from transportation in the U.S.”

Environmentalists and those setting the state’s climate policy say the ambitious goal is achievable. In the first three quarters of this year, more than 25% of new car sales in California were zero-emissions vehicles.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a car and truck manufacturing trade group, said the opposite, calling California’s clean car mandate “an unaccountable, unachievable regulatory wormhole” in a memo released this month.

The rules, known as Advanced Clean Cars II, will allow people to continue to drive gas cars and sell used gas-powered vehicles after 2035. The zero-emissions requirement will apply only to new vehicle sales.

Zero-emissions vehicles include those that run solely on batteries, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell electric vehicles.

The EPA’s approval continues the Biden administration’s push for aggressive climate policies, an approach President-elect Donald Trump has scoffed at, calling climate change a “hoax” and pledging to “terminate” California’s regulations.

Trump’s EPA revoked California’s waiver in his first term, but California sued in response. That lawsuit became moot when Biden took office and reinstated the waiver. Experts anticipate something similar could happen this time around.

The back-and-forth is challenging for automakers, who Reichmuth said need to plan their future models years ahead of time.

California was the first state to regulate tailpipe emissions in the 1960s, as it struggled to bring harmful air pollution under control. Los Angeles was notoriously cloaked with smog from vehicles, which was so bad at some points that visibility was just three blocks.

President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law in 1970, giving the EPA the authority to regulate air pollution from cars. The law bars states from enacting their own regulations, except California, given its unique air pollution problems.

California’s standards must be at least as strict as federal law and are considered necessary “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.” While other states can’t set their own standards, they can adopt California’s.

Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia have adopted the 2035 zero-emissions standards for new car sales.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has weighed in on California’s authority to enforce its own tailpipe emissions standards. Earlier this week, the court denied an appeal calling into question the constitutionality of allowing a state like California to exceed federal standards on tailpipe emissions under the Clean Air Act.

But last week, the court agreed to hear a more narrow case involving California’s waiver: whether the oil and gas industry has the standing to sue the state over its exemption.

The passenger vehicle waiver is just one of eight California has requested from the EPA. The other waivers, still pending approval, address emissions from heavy-duty trucks, trains, leaf-blowers and other sources.

Despite the likely conflict coming from the Trump administration, law professor Ethan Elkind believes the long-term trajectory toward electric vehicles will remain the same.

“Battery prices are coming down so dramatically that in the end, it’s not going to matter that much,” said Elkind, who directs the Climate Program at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. “We’re moving toward all battery electric vehicles for most of our transportation with really just a few exceptions. It’s really just a question of how quickly we’re going to get there. And is the United States going to lag the rest of the world?”