House Disapproves California’s Clean Air Act Waiver Allowing State Clean Vehicle Standards

House Disapproves California’s Clean Air Act Waiver Allowing State Clean Vehicle Standards
Use of the CRA process to deny the waiver is an abuse of the process

• [SANTA FE] – On Wednesday and Thursday April 30th and May 1st 2025, the House improperly used the 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA) to disapprove California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act to set clean vehicle standards. The standards are: Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks, to increase the sale of zero-emission electric vehicles, and the Heavy-Duty Omnibus standard for nitrogen oxides emissions from heavy-duty trucks, which can form smog and contribute to asthma and respiratory infections. The Senate will take up the CRA joint resolutions next. 

  Two non-partisan Congressional watchdogs have determined that California’s waiver is not subject to the CRA. The Government Accountability Office has determined that because the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval came in the form of a waiver rather than a rule, it is not subject to the CRA. The Senate Parliamentarian, which determines the rules for Senate action, has also said the waivers are not subject to the CRA. Even if they were a “rule”, the waivers are well out of the timeline for use of the CRA. 

  In response, CVNM Chief Executive Officer Demis Foster issued the following statement: 

  “We are proud that New Mexico adopted all three of California’s vehicle standards for cleaner transportation. The result will be less climate pollution, cleaner air, and healthier communities. Congress does not have the authority to overturn California’s Clean Air Act waivers through the CRA. In doing so anyway, the House is ignoring the guidance given it and is also trampling on states’ rights under the Clean Air Act. This is creating a dangerous precedent. There will surely be a wave of litigation, as has been the case with so many actions in this administration. We urge New Mexico’s elected leaders and the Environment Department to stay the course and work with California and the other states to seek out alternatives that can continue to advance cleaner cars, cleaner air, and healthier communities until the waiver is back in place.” 

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  BACKGROUND 

  Under the terms of the Clean Air Act (CAA), California could request waivers to federal vehicle emissions standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and set its own more stringent standards. EPA is obligated under the CAA to grant California a waiver from federal standards as long as the state’s standards are at least as protective as the federal standards, necessary to solve severe air quality problems, and legal in all other respects. EPA waiver decisions have always been treated as an “order” and not a “rule” under the Administrative Procedure Act and thus have never before been subject to the CRA. 

  As part of the agreement with EPA for its waivers, no other state would be allowed to set its own standard, in order to avoid creating confusion from many different standards. However, any state could choose to follow California’s various vehicle standards. Over the years, the higher fuel emissions standards have pushed automakers to make their vehicles compliant with the California standards because of the large market in California and other states following California’s lead. 

  Recently, California has used its waivers to pass zero-emission vehicle and more stringent large truck emissions standards. The result is that there are now 17 states plus the District of Columbia that have adopted Zero-Emission Vehicles (Advanced Clean Cars II), 11 states 

  that have adopted Advanced Clean Trucks, and nine states that have adopted the Heavy-Duty Omnibus low nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions standards. 

  From the Congressional Research Service: “The CRA is a tool Congress can use to overturn certain federal agency actions. The CRA was enacted as part of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act in 1996. The CRA requires agencies to report the issuance of “rules“ to Congress and provides Congress with special procedures, in the form of a joint resolution of disapproval, under which to consider legislation to overturn rules. If a CRA joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the President, or if Congress successfully overrides a presidential veto, the rule at issue cannot go into effect or continue in effect.” 

   

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