Republican Plan to Kill California’s E.V. Policies Hits Senate Snag

Republicans in Congress cannot use an obscure legislative maneuver to stop California’s ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, the Senate parliamentarian ruled on Friday.

The decision dealt a blow to efforts by the Trump administration to quickly kill policies that promote electric vehicles.

California had received a federal waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act from the Biden administration to impose a stricter automobile emissions standard than the one set by the federal government. Under that waiver, it enacted a plan to require all new cars sold in the state by 2035 be free of emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to climate change.

It’s one of the most ambitious climate policies in the United States, designed to shift the auto industry toward electric cars. That has made it a top target for elimination by the Trump administration.

According to three Senate Democrats, however, the parliamentarian on Friday said the waiver granted to California was not subject to the Congressional Review Act, which permits lawmakers to reverse recently-adopted regulations with a simple majority vote.

California’s two Democratic senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, announced the decision but declined to release the text of the ruling.