The US Senate has voted to block a California program that prohibits cars and other gasoline -powered vehicles by 2035, sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s office for his signature.
The 51 to 44 vote on Thursday (22) revokes an exemption from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued under former President Joe Biden, allowing California to establish even more rigorous emissions standards than US government requirements to increase sales of electric vehicles and other vehicles without emission.
The decision to revoke exemptions to the state’s automotive programs nullifies a practice of decades – enshrined in the 1970 clean air law – which allows the most populous state of the US to establish strict pollution patterns that go beyond federal government requirements. This authority, initially conceived as a way to help California combat the smogit helped to sacrament in command, elaborating pollution restrictions that apply widely in other states that chose to follow the example.
California’s requirements, which faced opposition from automakers, fuel producers and Trump himself, were also scheduled to be applied in New York, Washington and other states that agreed to follow the same way. California rules opponents – which include Toyota automaker, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers commercial group and the US Chamber of Commerce – said they are unattainable.
“In the last 20 years, California has used its exemption authority to impose its extreme climate policies on the rest of the country, which has never been the intention of the clean air law,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Western Virginia’s Republican. “The decision to limit consumer choice, increasing car prices and eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs was taken by California and approved by a federal administration that had already been rejected by US voters.”
The measure, which was approved by the House earlier this month, comes after Trump criticizes electric vehicles, stating that they will not work and benefit China and Mexico, harming workers from the American auto industry. Its administration began to undo the Biden era’s climate and environmental policies, including those that promote a move to fossil -free vehicles.
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The movement to revoke California’s requirements, which were designed to reduce pollution that warms the planet, and halfway than in the state’s green vehicle greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, generated criticism from groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“This vote is an unprecedented and reckless attack on the legal authority of states to deal with pollution that causes asthma, lung diseases and heart problems,” said Manish Bapna, president of the environmental group. “Following a millions of dollar lobby campaign from major oil companies, Republicans quickly abandoned their old view that states can better implement measures that reflect the values and interests of their residents.”
Voting challenged a decision of the Senate parliamentarian, an interpreter not party to the House’s rules and procedures, which determined that EPA’s exemptions are not eligible for revocation using the Congress Review Law, the special procedure that Republicans are using to undo the standards of California. The law allows legislators to terminate measures of the Biden era that have been completed in the last months of their presidency.
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Republicans used a controversial procedural movement to circumvent the decision, generating a strong opposition from the Senate Democrats, who stated that this would establish a new precedent on what the Senate could do using a simple majority vote.
“This is a nuclear attack,” said Chuck Schumer minority leader on Wednesday night, adding that this would allow Republicans to kidnap the rules, eroding “The Senate and undermining this institution they claim to care.”
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