WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the final days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved Clean Air Act waivers for a number of California electric vehicle (EV) mandates. These waivers would allow California to force a shift to EVs by 2035, imposing unrealistic standards on automakers and restricting consumer choice for millions of Americans.
California set the strictest levels in the nation, requiring all new passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles sold to be electric or hydrogen-powered by 2035. As of 2023, 17 states chose to mimic California's standards including Minnesota. California is also the most populous state. Automakers and dealers cannot have a patchwork of standards that switches back and forth across state lines, so they are forced to default to the unrealistic bar California imposes. EVs are more expensive than gas or hybrid-powered cars, cater to wealthier customers, and have less range in cold climates.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, cosponsored three Congressional Review Act joint resolutions of disapproval to overturn these waivers. On Thursday, he voted to overturn the waivers.
“Consumers should have a choice in the vehicles they purchase, without government mandates,” said Cramer. “Granting California and 17 other states these waivers skews the entire market, inhibiting manufacturing and market choice for consumers. The cars they choose should meet the needs of their families, not check a political box for coastal activist Democrats trying to force EVs on the American public. The EPA’s eleventh-hour waiver for California’s heavy-handed adoption of EVs is extreme regulatory overreach. It needed to go, and I’m grateful my Senate colleagues voted to eliminate it.
“North Dakota auto dealers commend Sen. Cramer for his leadership to stop California’s ban on new gas cars,” said Matthew Larsgaard, President/CEO of the Automobile Dealers Association of North Dakota. “In North Dakota, only about 1 percent of vehicles are EVs. Besides being unworkable, California’s rule would have raised car and truck prices and reduced consumer choice for all North Dakotans.”