SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Republican-controlled U.S. House voted Thursday to block California from enforcing first-in-the-nation rules phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.
The move comes a day after the chamber voted to halt California standards to cut tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as curb smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
“The passage of these resolutions is a victory for Americans who will not be forced into purchasing costly EVs because of California’s unworkable mandates,” House Republicans Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Morgan Griffith of Virginia, said in a statement. “If not repealed, the California waivers would lead to higher prices for both new and used vehicles, increase our reliance on China, and strain our electric grid.”
California for decades has been given the authority to adopt vehicle emissions standards that are stricter than the federal government’s. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 announced plans to ban the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035, as part of an aggressive effort to lower emissions from the transportation sector. Plug-in hybrids and used gas cars could still be sold.
State regulators then formalized the rules, some other states announced plans to follow them, and the Biden administration approved the state’s waiver to implement them in December, a month before President Donald Trump returned to office.
This week’s House votes fell largely along party lines, though some Democrats joined Republicans to advance them. That would be against the advice of the Senate Parliamentarian, who sides with the U.S. General Accountability Office in saying California’s policies are not subject to the review mechanism used by the House.
Republicans used the Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving congressional oversight of actions by federal agencies, to try to block the rules. The Trump administration in 2019 revoked California’s ability to enforce its own emissions standards, but Biden later restored the state’