In the closing days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved Clean Air Act waivers for several California electric vehicle (EV) mandates. These waivers aimed to transition California to electric vehicles by 2035, setting high standards for automakers and limiting consumer options across the nation.
California’s regulations required all new passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles sold to be electric or hydrogen-powered by 2035. By 2023, 17 states, including Minnesota, had adopted similar standards. Automakers faced challenges due to differing state regulations and often defaulted to California’s stringent requirements. EVs tend to be more costly than gasoline or hybrid vehicles and may not perform as well in colder climates.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, co-sponsored three Congressional Review Act joint resolutions of disapproval against these waivers. On Thursday, he voted in favor of overturning them.
“Consumers should have a choice in the vehicles they purchase, without government mandates,” said Cramer. “Granting California and 17 other states these waivers skews the entire market, inhibiting manufacturing and market choice for consumers. The cars they choose should meet the needs of their families, not check a political box for coastal activist Democrats trying to force EVs on the American public. The EPA’s eleventh-hour waiver for California’s heavy-handed adoption of EVs is extreme regulatory overreach. It needed to go, and I’m grateful my Senate colleagues voted to eliminate it.”
North Dakota auto dealers expressed support for Senator Cramer’s efforts: “North Dakota auto dealers commend Sen. Cramer for his leadership to stop California’s ban on new gas cars,” they stated. “In North Dakota, only about 1 percent of vehicles are EVs. Besides being unworkable, California’s rule would have raised car and truck prices and reduced consumer choice for all North Dakotans.”
