Over the objection of the Senate parliamentarian, Senate votes to overturn California’s waiver allowing stricter car emission standards

essentialsaltes said:

Senate votes to overturn California’s landmark ban on new gas-only car sales​

Because of its historically poor air quality, California has been an innovator in clean car policy, enacting the nation’s first tailpipe emissions standards in 1966. California was later granted the special authority to adopt vehicle emission standards that are more strict than the federal government’s under the Clean Air Act. But the state must seek a federal waiver from the U.S. EPA for any specific rule to be enforceable.

[California literally led the way, and when the federal government partly caught up in 1970, California was allowed to continue to do more for the last 55 years. IIRC, other states are allowed to use California's standards. A number of them do.]

In a 51-44 vote, the Senate overturned a Biden-era waiver that enabled California and a contingent of Democratic-led states to enforce zero-emission requirements for the sale of new passenger vehicles. After several hours of debate and testimony, legislators struck down a landmark regulation that aimed to drastically accelerate electric vehicle sales in California and nearly a dozen other states that chose to follow its lead, substantially reducing air pollution and planet-warming carbon emissions from tailpipes.

Republicans moved ahead with the votes despite the warnings from the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Parliamentarian that the waivers could not be overturned with the Congressional Review Act — a law that was meant to allow legislators to inspect and potentially block federal *rules adopted in the waning days of a previous presidential administration [and do so with a majority vote rather than the usual 60, thus making this move a crypto-"nuclear option"]. [*GAO and parliamentarian note the waiver is not a rule, but rather an order.]

If the measure is signed into law by President Trump and survives impending legal challenges, the vote would serve as a coup de grace to the state’s decades-long efforts to comply with federal smog standards in Southern California and meet California’s own ambitious climate goals. [That is, the state is still subject to smog standards, but its most effective regulatory tool for meeting them is being taken away.]

In separate votes, Republicans also rolled back additional California clean-air rules that require the state’s heavy-duty truck fleet to adopt cleaner engines and a growing percentage of zero-emission vehicles.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta vowed to defend California’s rules by filing a lawsuit alleging Thursday’s votes were an improper use of the Congressional Review Act.

‘Make America Smoggy Again:’ Governor Newsom responds to illegal Senate vote aiming to undo state’s clean air policies​

Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced today the state will file a lawsuit as Republicans in the U.S. Senate target California’s clean vehicles program – a move that will “Make America Smoggy Again.”​

“This Senate vote is illegal. Republicans went around their own parliamentarian to defy decades of precedent. We won’t stand by as Trump Republicans make America smoggy again — undoing work that goes back to the days of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan — all while ceding our economic future to China. We’re going to fight this unconstitutional attack on California in court.”​

California’s climate leadership​

Pollution is down and the economy is up. Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 – even as the state’s GDP increased 78% in that same time period.

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That Guy 11200 said:

I've never understood why right-wing politicians love filfth.

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