The Democratic California government is preparing to sue the federal government after the Senate voted to nix its electric vehicle mandate.
On Thursday, the Republican Senate voted to roll back several key Biden-era waivers that allowed the state to set its own emissions standards, CNN reported. The vote undid a last-minute approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for California to phase out gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
“This Senate vote is illegal. Republicans went around their own parliamentarian to defy decades of precedent. We won’t stand by as Trump Republicans make America smoggy again — undoing work that goes back to the days of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan — all while ceding our economic future to China. We’re going to fight this unconstitutional attack on California in court,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a press release.
“With these votes, Senate Republicans are bending the knee to President Trump once again,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “The weaponization of the Congressional Review Act to attack California’s waivers is just another part of the continuous, partisan campaign against California’s efforts to protect the public and the planet from harmful pollution. As we have said before, this reckless misuse of the Congressional Review Act is unlawful, and California will not stand idly by. We need to hold the line on strong emissions standards and keep the waivers in place, and we will sue to defend California’s waivers.”
“If this gambit works, it will not be the last time this tactic is used,” California Sen. Adam Schiff said as he accused Republicans of blowing “a hole in the filibuster for the oil industry.”
Senate Minority Leader and New York Senator Charles Schumer was furious with the Republicans for circumventing the filibuster.
“It’s going nuclear, plain and simple. It’s overruling the parliamentarian. And second, what goes around comes around,” the senator said to reporters.
And New Mexico Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich echoed the words of the Senate Minority Leader.
“If Senate Republicans force a vote on the California Clean Air Act Waivers, they set a precedent that will allow Congress to overturn nearly any agency decision nationwide,” he said before the vote. “I urge my colleagues to reject this gross overreach.”
“By opening this door, Republicans threaten to destroy our permitting and regulatory system, leading to higher energy costs for Americans and making it impossible for new developments to come online. Indeed, nearly every major and minor project the federal government touches could be stalled, creating significant uncertainty if not complete chaos. That is not what the American people want, and it cannot be what Senate Republicans want, either,” he said.
But Republicans were not impressed, as Democrats have done the same thing many times.
“The only people that have attempted to get rid of the legislative filibuster – the Democrats – every single one up there that’s popping off and spouting off has voted, literally, to get rid of the legislative filibuster,” Senate Majority Leader and Republican South Dakota Sen. John Thune told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
“This is a novel and narrow issue that deals with the Government Accountability Office and whether or not they ought to be able to determine what is a rule and what isn’t, or whether the administration and the Congress ought to be able to make that decision,” he said.
Senate Majority Whip and Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso called California’s plan for EVs a “fantasyland” that will damage ranchers and farmers in his state.
“California’s EV mandates ban the sale of gas-powered cars and trucks. They threaten the freedom of every American to choose what they drive,” he said. “EVs currently make up 7% of the US market. Even in California, they account for only 20% of vehicle sales. And sales are stalling. Yet California’s radical mandates require 35% of all vehicle sales to be electric by 2026 – six months from now. By 2035, it jumps to 100%.”