Lawmakers in the House of Representatives recently voted to reverse those waivers granted to California.
She described the waivers as a “quadruple win”, benefiting public health, air quality, drivers’ pockets and the economy as a whole.
More than a dozen states follow California’s lead on emissions standards, according to the California air resources board.
Harris said she recently pulled up pictures of what air quality looked like in cities around the country in the 1960s before the Clean Air Act, the seminal environmental law that regulates the nation’s air quality, was in effect.
The American Lung Association also found last month that Los Angeles remained the country’s smoggiest city for the 25th time in 26 years of tracking, despite decades of improvements in air quality.
As one of the country’s leading environmental advocates, California has long established historic environmental regulations for automobiles and trucks that surpass federal requirements. It has led to a greater number of cleaner, more efficient, and electric vehicles nationwide.
All of that, however, might change if Donald Trump and his Republican allies succeed in taking away the state’s authority to impose its own, more stringent emissions standards as part of a White House campaign to oppose climate-friendly legislation.
The Biden administration increased the EPA’s federal standards last year, claiming that they would save American drivers thousands of dollars in fuel and maintenance over the course of a vehicle’s life. The EPA sets and updates its own federal standards for all states on smog and emissions from cars and trucks.
To help address some of the worst smog and air quality problems in the country, which are linked to a number of health effects that disproportionately affect people of color, California has been given the authority to enforce those regulations even more strictly for decades.
Those waivers granted to California were recently revoked by a House of Representatives vote. Using the Congressional Review Act, which typically enables lawmakers to overturn actions by federal agencies with a simple majority vote, Republicans in the Senate advanced efforts on Wednesday to repeal California’s stricter air quality regulations. This authority enables decisions made under the CRA to be made without the minority party filibustering.
Democrats criticize the plan as a “nuclear” option, claiming it is an illegal and unprecedented use of the statute. According to the Senate lawmaker and the Government Accountability Office, EPA waivers are exempt from the review law.
In a statement, Senators Alex Padilla, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, “This action will negatively impact public health and worsen air quality for millions of children and people nationwide.”.
For almost 60 years, California has had the authority to impose stringent emissions regulations on cars, trucks, and buses. Kathy Harris, director of clean vehicles at the Natural Resources Defense Council, pointed out that the state has received more than 75 waivers under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Among the exemptions are stipulations requiring automakers to produce increasingly cleaner automobiles and regulations to raise the annual percentage of electric vehicles sold among all new cars and trucks.
The waivers are a “quadruple win,” she said, helping drivers’ wallets, the economy overall, public health, and air quality.
Harris stated in an interview that these waivers are neither new nor unique. California has long been at the forefront of developing technologies to help create cleaner air, so impeding our progress would be an open assault on our capacity to reduce air pollution and harmful pollutants. “”.
Removing the waivers, she continued, would instantly result in more pollution on the country’s roads.
According to the California Air Resources Board, over a dozen states have adopted California’s emissions regulations. Currently, over 25% of heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks, and nearly 40% of new light-duty vehicle registrations nationwide are subject to the standards.
Since California has the fourth-largest economy in the world, automakers have mostly complied with its emissions regulations in order to maintain sales of their vehicles there.
In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom took the environmental game a notch higher by announcing that his state would outlaw the sale of any new gas-powered automobiles by 2035. The fact that eleven states have joined California in its plan to outlaw the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by the year 2035 has alarmed big automakers.
The plan was approved at the end of Joe Biden’s administration. Trump, however, has vowed to see many of the country’s climate initiatives reversed.
When Trump ran for office last year, he claimed that California had “the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all electric cars.”. “I will put an end to that. “”.
On Wednesday, Newsom described the fight as the final nail in the coffin of decades of progress in public health and the American auto industry.
“The U.S. Senate has a choice: follow decades of precedent and uphold the clean-air policies that Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon fought so hard for, or give up American car industry dominance to China and clog our children’s lungs,” he said in a statement challenging Republicans. “Are you going to support the United States or China?”.
Following a convoluted series of procedural votes that lasted late into the evening, the Senate decided to proceed with its plan to restrict California on Wednesday. This decision could have far-reaching implications that extend well beyond the boundaries of the state.
According to Harris, she recently retrieved images of the state of the air in American cities during the 1960s, prior to the implementation of the Clean Air Act, the landmark environmental law that governs the country’s air quality. She said that California’s typical smog levels cover the state like the apocalyptic clouds of smoke from wildfires that have rolled in during recent fire seasons.
Despite decades of improvements in air quality, the American Lung Association also reported last month that, for the 25th time in 26 years of tracking, Los Angeles was still the smoggiest city in the nation.
According to Harris, “I believe we have forgotten what our air used to look like.”. We take it for granted because the policy has been in place for so long that we aren’t particularly aware of its immediate advantages. “.”.
She continued, “We have not yet been able to completely clean up our air, so there is still a long way to go.”. These kinds of regulations make sure that we are heading in the right way. “”.
