WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a resolution Thursday blocking California’s first rules banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The move is expected to become the state’s latest legal challenge with the federal government.
The resolution was approved by Congress last month and aims to counteract the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered vehicles. Trump has also signed measures to overturn state policies that will curb tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and control smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
Trump called California regulations “crazy” during the White House ritual he signed the resolution.
“It was a disaster for this country,” he said.
It comes when a Republican president gets caught up in a clash with California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom over Trump’s move to roll out to Los Angeles in response to immigrant protests. This is the latest in the ongoing battle between the Trump administration and massive California over issues that include tariffs, LGBTQ+ youth rights and funding for electric vehicle chargers.
The three resolutions signed by Trump will block California rules to remove gas-powered cars, and will end new cars by 2035. It also phases out sales of medium and heavy diesel vehicles and kills rules that reduce tailpipe emissions from trucks.
In his remarks at the White House, Trump expressed doubts about the electric vehicle’s performance and reliability, but despite fractures in the relationship, he had particularly positive comments about the company owned by Elon Musk.
“I like Tesla,” Trump said.
In a statement that often meandered from the subject in front of him, Trump used East Room ceremony to assert that even windmills that he claimed were “killing our country” could potentially be electrocuted on an electric-powered boat if it sank, if it jeopardizes a shark attack by a jump when the boat drops.
“I get electrocuted every day,” the president said.
As for cars, Trump said he likes burning engines, but otherwise he likes “If you want to buy electricity, you can buy electricity.”
“What this does is give us freedom,” said Bill Kent, owner of Kent Kwik convenience store. Speaking at the White House, Kent said California rules would force them to set up an infrastructure that “frankly, it’s very expensive and doesn’t give returns.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing major automakers, praised Trump’s actions.
“We agreed that these EV sales delegations could never be achieved and would not be very unrealistic,” said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the group, in a statement.
A newspaper considered the Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, claims that what the federal government is doing is illegal and that the state has plans to sue.
“If it’s the day that ends with Y, it’s another day of Trump’s war in California,” Newsom spokesman Daniel Villazenor said in an email prior to Trump’s signature. “We’re fighting back.”
The California Attorney General is scheduled to speak at a press conference Thursday morning.
The signature comes when Trump promised to revive American car manufacturing and boost oil and gas drilling.
The move follows other measures the Trump administration has taken to roll back rules aimed at protecting air and water and reducing climate-inducing emissions.
On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed repeal rules that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that were fueled by coal and natural gas.
Dan Becker, at the Center for Biodiversity, said the resolution was “trust over Trump’s latest democracy.”
“Signing this bill is a serious abuse of the law, in order to reward large-scale oil and large-scale auto companies at the expense of everyday people’s health and their wallets,” Becker said in a statement.
California, which has some of the country’s worst air pollution, has been able to seek exemptions from the EPA for decades and adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
In his first term, Trump revoked his ability to implement California standards, but Democrat President Joe Biden recovered it in 2022. Trump has yet to cancel it again.
Republicans have long criticised those exemptions, and earlier this year chose to use the Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving federal agencies’ oversight of Congressional actions, in an attempt to block the rules.
That’s despite findings from the US Government’s Accountability Office, a nonpartisan Congressional watchdog that California standards cannot be legally blocked using Congressional Review Act. The senator agreed to the findings.
California, which accounts for around 11% of the US automotive market, has a great power to shake up trends in the automotive industry. About 12 states have signed to adopt California rules that phase out new gas-powered vehicles.
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Austin was reported from Sacramento, California.
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