House votes to overturn California's tough electric vehicle mandates

David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Apr 30, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to dramatically limit California’s ability to set tougher standards for vehicle emissions. But it appears prospects for passage in the Senate are shaky.

The Republican-authored legislation sends a strong message that GOP lawmakers in Washington see California’s efforts to limit vehicle emissions as an unnecessary bureaucratic quagmire.

One aim of the effort, said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., is “to stop a single individual, Gavin Newsom, from dictating what tens of millions of Californians and other Americans are allowed to drive.”

While California’s environmental policies are not in effect nationally, as California goes, so could the nation, this argument went.

“The American people should choose what vehicle is right for them, not California bureaucrats,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Republicans aim to end the Environmental Protection Agency decisions that allowed California to adopt a ban on the use of gas-powered vehicles, heavy trucks, and diesel engines over the next decade.

House votes

The House approved two of the bills Wednesday on largely party line votes.

It passed 225 to 196 legislation sponsored by Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., to permit the state to implement its most recent nitrogen oxide (NOx) engine emission standards.

The standards “create burdensome and unworkable standards for heavy-duty on-road engines,” said Rep. John James, R-Mich., another key legislation sponsor.

The House also voted 231 to 191 to reverse the state’s decision to require truck makers to sell zero-emission trucks.

James charged that the California decision involves “comply-or-die Green New Deal mandates that threaten to crush our trucking industry and drive-up costs for hardworking Americans.”

The House debated but did not vote on legislation that would reverse the EPA’s decision to approve a waiver granted to California allowing the state to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

The EPA had allowed California to require the sale of zero-emission trucks and ban the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

The House debate Wednesday was a classic battle of environmental advocates against those who see the government as overbearing and overregulating.

“What we have with these mandates is more and more difficulty to even operate trucks,” said Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif. Why, he asked, don’t vehicle manufacturers get credit for more efficient gas- and diesel-powered vehicles?

“Americans should be able to drive a car of their choice, not one that is chosen for them by the government,” said Kiley, who said he does drive an electric vehicle.

But Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., said the California policies have “done much to clear the smoggy air of the Golden State.” The Republican push to end those policies, he said, was a “political Kabuki show attacking California for political benefit.”

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., immediately said he’d fight any effort to get the bills through the Senate.

“California’s authority and responsibility to regulate its own pollution is enshrined in federal law and has been repeatedly approved on a bipartisan basis, and reaffirmed by years of independent review,” he said.

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