The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded a Trump administration rule that revoked California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards and has now restored the state’s ability to do so.
The agency, in its ruling, stated that the decision that led to the 2019 Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule Part One: One National Program Rule, which sought to prevent California, the largest vehicle market in the country, from setting its own standards, was made “in error and are now entirely rescinded.”
With that, the EPA has given California the authority under the Clean Air Act to implement its own emissions standards for greenhouse gases and its own zero-emissions vehicle sales mandates.
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California’s ability to set its own standards is given legally through a waiver from the EPA. Although it is the only state that can set its own emissions standards, others can choose to follow those rules, too. Altogether, states following California’s rules represent more than 40 percent of the U.S. market, giving California’s rules national significance.
The waiver was historically used for conventional pollutants until the Obama administration expanded it to include greenhouse gases, too, reports Politico. A 2013 waiver gave California the authority to set its own, stricter vehicle emissions rules through model year 2025. At the time, the waiver didn’t really matter, though, because the state had effectively harmonized its rules with the federal government’s.
The Trump administration, though, was attempting to change emissions rules to make them less strict and was forced to take on California’s rules in order to prevent the U.S. from effectively having two vehicle markets with two different sets of emissions rules. With the election of President Joe Biden, an executive order was issued to reconsider those policies.
In reconsidering the decision, the EPA found that the Trump-era action was “improper” and based on “misapplied facts,” according to the agency’s administrator, Michael Regan. The decision reestablished California’s ability to set its own mandates to “address compelling and extraordinary air quality conditions.”
“I thank the Biden Administration for righting the reckless wrongs of the Trump Administration and recognizing our decades-old authority to protect Californians and our planet,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement. “The restoration of our state’s Clean Air Act waiver is a major victory for the environment, our economy and the health of families across the country that comes at a pivotal moment underscoring the need to end our reliance on fossil fuels.”
