Trump’s action reverses California gas-powered car phaseout
WASHINGTON — On June 12, the President signed joint resolutions passed by both houses of Congress, which illegally use the Congressional Review Act to block U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waivers for cleaner cars and cleaner trucks standards. The resolutions were passed by Congress last month.
These resolutions reverse both a previous waiver granted by the Biden administration and decades of precedent, wherein California has had the authority to establish vehicle pollution standards that are stronger than federal standards. Since 1977, other states have had the right, granted under an amendment to the Clean Air Act, to choose California’s standards.
In response, GreenLatinos Policy Advisor Andrea Marpillero-Colomina issued the following statement:
“This resolution strips states of their right to set stronger tailpipe pollution standards. Moreover, it harms the health of the millions of people living in 17 states and the District of Columbia, where leaders have taken significant steps to protect their constituents from deadly tailpipe pollution. The people living in those places represent nearly half the country’s population.
The votes by Congress and Trump’s signing of this resolution unquestionably undermine the right of states to set their own policies to protect the people who live there from preventable harms and delivers profits directly to Big Oil, at the expense of breathable air and EV infrastructure jobs.
Unfortunately, we are not surprised that Trump and this Republican-led Congress would rather line the pockets of a select few and stay stuck in the 20th century, rather than protect our health and secure the U.S.’s place as leaders in the future of the automotive industry, which will be electric whether they are along for the ride or not.”
