By Lynn La | CALmatters
California officials moved quickly to start another legal battle against President Donald Trump’s administration after the U.S. Senate voted Thursday to revoke federal waivers that allowed the state to phase-out gas powered cars and combat air pollution.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta said they plan to file a lawsuit on the grounds that Congress’ use of the Congressional Review Act to rescind the waivers is illegal. The law allows Congress to overturn actions of federal agencies, under specific circumstances, without a supermajority vote. California secured the waivers last year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden.
- Bonta: “California has received approximately 100 waivers since waivers have been given and the CRA has never been applied to any of those waivers before. … This is a workaround for Trump to punish California for defying his efforts to bring us backward.”
While Bonta emphasized that Trump’s actions aimed to obstruct California’s authority to enforce its own state laws, Newsom focused on how revoking the waivers threatened California’s public health and the country’s electric vehicle industry. Saying that the administration was “doubling down on stupid,” the governor argued that this would further enable China’s dominance over the electric vehicle market.
- Newsom: “Big day for Big Oil. … Big day for China. Terrible day for your kids, terrible day for air quality, terrible day for innovation and entrepreneurship.”
As the state readies itself for its 23rd lawsuit against Trump since his second term, more California laws may be under threat from the administration and GOP members in Congress, including dozens of existing and proposed laws regulating artificial intelligence and laws that benefit immigrants lacking permanent legal status.
For more on the Senate vote and the waivers, check out CalMatters’ story from Alejandro Lazo and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde.