EPA Grants California Clean Air Act Waivers for EV Mandates

On December 18, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted two waivers to California under the Clean Air Act. These waivers permit California to enforce more strict emissions standards than those at the federal level. The regulations, endorsed by these waivers, necessitate that by 2026, 35% of automakers’ fleet should be zero-emissions vehicles, progressing to 100% by 2035. Also, they allow a ban on the sales of new petrol-operated vehicles by 2035. President-elect Trump vocally vows to topple the “EV mandate” imposed by the Biden Administration and is predicted to retract these waivers instantaneously. Regardless, though a Trump-guided EPA can withdraw the waiver administratively, defending such an action against probable legal challenges from California and potentially other states adhering to Californian standards, could take considerable time.

Clean Air Act Section 177 allows other states to adopt California’s motor vehicle emission standards. Section 177 requires states that choose to do so must adopt emission standards identical to the California standards. Currently, 17 states (New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, Virginia, and New Mexico) and the District of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of all new vehicle sales sold in the U.S., have adopted various aspects of California’s vehicle emission standards. 

On a related note, on December 16, the US Supreme Court served two notifications concerning legal contests to the EPA’s power to provide Clean Air Act waivers to California. In the first case, brought about by states led by Republicans, the Court decided against reviewing a subordinate court’s verdict that granted the EPA’s waiver provision to California. In contrast, within the second case, initiated by fuel manufacturers, the Court decided to scrutinize the issue of whether plaintiffs possess the authority to contest the waivers. The Court will restrict review to examining if the fuel groups that filed the lawsuit have legitimate grounds for suing. They will not consider the merits of the challenge to EPA’s 2013 waiver. However, this approach still marks a significant advancement in the legal procedure and may ultimately compel the Court to consider the core credibility of the case.