WASHINGTON — The House this week set the stage for a major U.S. Senate conflict that targeted California’s decades-old powers, casting the vote to enforce its own environmental standards, and that Republican leaders must reject long-standing congressional orders and pass measures.
The vote raised questions about California’s exemption from the 1970 Clean Air Act. This is the authorities that allowed states to set stricter pollution guidelines and that leaders would set alternative standards for motor vehicle emissions to federal emissions.
On Thursday, House Republicans voted to ban California from banning gas-powered cars by 2035, with a small number of Democrats joining in. The previous day, the House of Representatives voted along a similar line to set emission standards for California trucks and demonstrated its ability to fight the state’s SMOG levels.
For decades, automakers have been part of the size of the California market, with car manufacturers bending their car production lines to meet California mileage standards, partly as they discovered that the industry is a safer bet, as they make fuel efficiency standards stricter than alternatives.
But since President Trump took office, the Environmental Protection Agency has questioned whether it corresponds to a technical “rules” that allow the Senate to disapprove a waiver with a simple majority vote under the Congressional Review Act.
Over the past two months, the Senator and Government Accountability Office, or two independent offices of GAO, have discovered that California exemption authorities are not subject to review under the Congressional Review Act.
The California exemption said it was “not a rule” under the law, noting that the issue has been reviewed multiple times over the past 60 years. “The EPA’s recent submission is inconsistent with this Kassero,” the agency found.
These decisions were not enough to stop the votes from moving forward in the House, but under majority leader John Tune (Rs.D.), they fall into Senate Republican leadership and decide how to proceed.
“Let’s be clear about the process too,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif) said in a statement. “The Senators have already supported decades of precedents and have determined that these CRAs are not permitted by Senate rules. If Senate Republicans take these steps under the Congressional Review Act, they will become the core of overturning Congressional members.
The office of California Senator Adam Schiff also said it would urge others in the Senate to comply with the GAO findings, and Thune had previously committed to following “regular orders” of the vote.
“Republicans have acknowledged that the Congressional Review Act, like Senators, is not a tool to ignore the law and overturn precedent,” Schiff said.
“We will fight this latest attack on California’s power to protect our nation’s residents,” he added.
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