The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to nullify rules taken in the final 60 days of a prior administration.
Trump is using the CRA to kill California’s ability to set EV standards for the Nation.
Many Democrats are howling, but 35 House Democrats support Trump.
The best part of the CRA is that it only requires a simple majority in Congress and is thus filibuster-proof in the Senate.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-politics-of-evs-has-changed-house-vote-california-waiver-1f951a68?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
On Thursday the House voted in strong bipartisan fashion to overturn the EV mandate the Biden Administration let California impose on the rest of America.
The vote was 246-164 for a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to repeal the waiver that the Environmental Protection Agency granted California for its EV mandate. The waiver provision was written to let California address smog. But Sacramento Democrats lobbied the Biden EPA to let it apply to carbon emissions.
The mandate is ludicrously impossible to meet. It says zero-emissions vehicles would have to account for 43% of an auto maker’s sales by 2027 in California and the dozen other states that have signed up for its rules. It rises to 68% by 2030.
The House vote is especially striking because of the 35 Democratic ayes. That included three of six Democrats from Michigan, three of five from Ohio, four of 12 from Texas, and even two from the High Climate Church of California (Luis Correa and George Whitesides). Let’s hope they’re not excommunicated by Pope Gavin (Newsom) I.
4 Likes
I must say Mish wrote some astonishingly stupid things, and this might be another. California had no ability to set EV policy “for the country”. They did for “the state”, but I’m pretty sure that is a different thing. (The EPA gave them the right to set a higher bar than other, less congested states, owing to the high uses of gas cars around Los Angeles and San Francisco and the world famous smog which resulted. By way of information, the smog alerts have been reduced by over 90% since California began enforcing stricter rules.)
It is true that several other states have decided to follow California’s rules, but it’s around 20% of them, total, and hardly constitutes setting policy for “the nation.”
(PS: big surprise that those fro the gas-power states voted the way they did, or that those in the freeeeedom states of the south and Midwest without the problem did, but so what? And large swathes of California aren’t urban, so a Rep vote there is probably what their constituents want. And say, what happened to that big slogan about “state’s rights”? Or does that only count on certain things as we are becoming acquainted with on the variable scale of “I pick which laws I feel like following, and also which Constitutional Rights”?)
7 Likes
What’s new? Congresscritters vote to keep their jobs. If you don’t represent a Congressional District in California, it’s a free vote.
We’re basically screwed on climate change anyway.
Give them what they voted for – good and hard.
intercst
4 Likes
There may be some confusion here with California’s rules (which several other states follow) and the EPA standards for fuel efficiency.
From 2022, a standard that essentially required EV adoption (and demand).
https://www.theclimategroup.org/our-work/news/biden-administration-announces-ambitious-final-cafe-standards-climate-group-responds
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced final Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards…The new standards require a 49 mpg fleetwide average by 2026…
https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/corporate-average-fuel-economy
June 7, 2024: The final rule establishes standards that would require an industry-wide fleet average of approximately 50.4 miles per gallon (mpg) in MY 2031 for passenger cars and light trucks…
DB2