The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday signed off on two major California clean air rules designed to reduce pollution from cars and trucks, including a ban on selling new gasoline-powered cars statewide by 2035.
Under the Clean Air Act, California has the ability to adopt more stringent vehicle emission requirements than the federal government. But the state must seek a waiver from the EPA.
The EPA granted two waivers for two regulations approved by the California Air Resources Board:
- The Advanced Clean Cars II rule, adopted in 2022, requires an increasing percentage of new cars sold by California auto dealerships to be zero-emission or plug-in hybrids. The regulation eventually culminates in a ban on selling new, gasoline-powered cars by 2035. It is slated to go into effect in 2026.
- The Heavy-Duty Omnibus rule, adopted in 2020, establishes cleaner engine standards and requires warranties for new heavy-duty vehicles. It had been scheduled to go into effect this year.
The EPA action allows the state to enforce the rules, which are collectively expected to prevent more than 3,700 premature deaths and provide $36 billion in public health benefits, state officials say.
“California has longstanding authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”
California policymakers and environmentalists view recent Supreme Court actions as a small victory for clean air, but worry about future legal challenges.
Environmental groups lauded the EPA decision, which will help California tackle its largest source of pollution and greenhouse gases — the transportation sector. Every day, tens of millions of gas-fueled automobiles release copious amounts of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and heat-trapping carbon dioxide. But California drivers are increasingly buying zero-emission or plug-in hybrid vehicles, which made up more than 25% of all light-duty vehicle sales statewide in 2024.
The new regulation is intended to accelerate electric vehicle adoption and drastically improve air quality over the coming decades. Under the new rule, 35% of new cars must be zero emission by 2026, 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
Drivers will still have the option to buy a used car with an internal combustion engine.
“This might read like checking a bureaucratic box, but EPA’s approval is a critical step forward in protecting our lungs from pollution and our wallets from the expenses of combustion fuels,” said Paul Cort, director of Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign. “The gradual shift in car sales to zero-emissions models will cut smog and household costs while growing California’s clean energy workforce. EPA must now approve the remaining authorization requests from California to allow the state to clean its air and protect its residents.”
California will join the 27 countries of the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, which have adopted policies that ban new gasoline car sales by 2035 or sooner.
At least 11 other states, including Washington and New York, have adopted California’s zero-emission mandate. If they follow through, the rule would be in effect for about 133 million people, or nearly 40% of the country’s population.
Industry groups denounced the move by the EPA, with some expressing their desire for President-elect Donald Trump to attempt to revoke the waiver and topple the rule.
“Contrary to claims on the campaign trail that they would never tell Americans what kinds of cars we have to drive, the Biden-Harris EPA just did exactly that by greenlighting California’s ban on sales of all new gas and traditional hybrid vehicles,” American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers president Chet Thompson said in a statement. “These policies will harm consumers — millions of whom don’t even live in California — by taking away their ability to buy new gas cars in their home states and raising vehicle and transportation costs.
“They will also undermine U.S. energy and national security. Americans want nothing to do with gas car bans, EV mandates or California radicalism, which they just made abundantly clear at the polls. I suspect this is why EPA waited until after the election to issue this decision.”
A new study finds fertilized soil is a major driver of smog-forming pollution near the Salton Sea.
But the EPA action could be the first of several before the Biden administration leaves office.
The California Air Resources Board is still waiting for the EPA to take action on six other major clean air rules, including regulations that would phase out fossil fuel-powered cargo trucks and locomotives.
Authorizing the rules ahead of Trump’s arrival to the White House makes it more difficult for the incoming administration and other opponents to attack them, according to Joe Lyou, president of the Coalition for Clean Air.
“It’s harder to unring the bell than if they don’t get issued,” Lyou said. “The new administration can sit on them for more years, or they can decline them.”
One challenge to the zero-emission vehicle mandate is already underway. Recently, the Supreme Court announced it would decide whether red-state fuel producers have legal standing to sue the EPA for alleged financial losses caused by California’s stringent fuel economy standards and electric vehicle mandate.
