June 13, 2025 - Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) released the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s signing of resolutions to revoke California’s vehicle emission standards:
“Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, California was consistently granted waivers under the Clean Air Act to implement stronger standards to help ensure cleaner air for our families. By eliminating the filibuster and passing these polluter resolutions, President Donald Trump, EPA Administrator Zeldin and Republicans in Congress are undermining our state’s ability to protect the health of millions of Americans.
“From the party that once claimed the mantle of champion of state’s rights, the GOP is now only the party of polluter rights. This action will have devastating consequences not just on California, but on other states that have adopted the Golden State’s higher standards. This will ultimately result in dirtier air, and more asthma and lung cancer, and that will be their legacy.
“I will continue doing everything I can to fight back against the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on California.”
Background:
Last month, Senator Adam Schiff denounced the Majority Leader’s decision to go nuclear by throwing out the Senate Parliamentarian’s ruling on California’s clean air waivers, taking a sledgehammer to states’ rights, and gutting California’s ability to set its own clean air standards. Schiff urged Senate Republicans to consider the implications this decision will have on their states if they use the Congressional Review Act against California’s waivers.
Source: Senator Adam Schiff
President Trump Statement:
Today, I signed into law (1) H.J. Res. 87, “Joint Resolution providing congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to ‘California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Heavy-Duty Vehicle and Engine Emission Warranty and Maintenance Provisions; Advanced Clean Trucks; Zero Emission Airport Shuttle; Zero-Emission Power Train Certification; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision’”; (2) H.J. Res. 88, “Joint Resolution providing congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to ‘California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Advanced Clean Cars II; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision’”; and (3) H.J. Res. 89, “Joint Resolution providing congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to ‘California State Motor Vehicle and Engine and Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; The ‘Omnibus’ Low NOX Regulation; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision’”.
These bipartisan measures prevent California’s attempt to impose a nationwide electric vehicle mandate and to regulate national fuel economy by regulating carbon emissions. Because of the joint resolutions I signed today, California’s Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks, and Omnibus Low NOX programs are fully and expressly preempted by the Clean Air Act and cannot be implemented.
Preemption of these programs is essential to preserving the Constitution’s allocation of power both among the States and between the States and the Federal Government. It is the Federal Government, not States, that should establish vehicle emissions standards given the inherently interstate nature of air quality; a patchwork of State vehicle regulations on this subject is unworkable. Our Constitution does not allow one State special status to create standards that limit consumer choice and impose an electric vehicle mandate upon the entire Nation.
As the Congress’s joint resolutions make clear, California’s attempts to impose an electric vehicle mandate, regulate national fuel economy, and regulate greenhouse gas emissions are not eligible for waivers of preemption under section 209 of the Clean Air Act. This provision of the Clean Air Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant waivers to California to address only compelling and extraordinary localized issues. It can never again be misused to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which inherently do not have localized effects, much less compelling and extraordinary local effects, or vehicle emissions across the Nation.
Under the Congressional Review Act, the EPA cannot approve any future waivers that are “substantially the same” as those disapproved in the joint resolutions. The core of the waivers at issue are their authorization of California to regulate greenhouse gas and NOX emissions from internal combustion engines and to impose what amounts to an electric vehicle mandate across the Nation. Accordingly, the joint resolutions prohibit the EPA from approving future waivers for California that would impose California’s policy goals across the entire country and violate fundamental constitutional principles of federalism, ending the electric vehicle mandate for good.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 12, 2025.
Source: Office of the White House
