More than 150 Republican legislators are asking President Joe Biden to not accept California’s recent green energy car rules by refusing the state’s request for a waiver.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Clean Air Act lets California attempt to receive a waiver that would allow the state to set its own emission regulations for new cars.
The EPA has to approve the waiver prior to the rules going into effect, and is supposed to do so unless the state “was arbitrary and capricious in its finding that its standards are, in the aggregate, at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards;” “does not need such standards to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions;” or “such standards and accompanying enforcement procedures are not consistent with Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.”
Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) led the Republican pushback, along with almost three-quarters of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. The lawmakers don’t want Biden to approve the State of California’s Air Resource Board (CARB) Clean Air Act waiver request.
The board’s new rules would require 35% of all new car sales in California to be electric vehicles by 2026, with all internal combustion engines done away with by 2035, according to Fox News.
The Washington Times noted that 68% of cars need to be electric by 2030. The state already voluntarily has a high number of electric vehicles. The outlet reported that around 16% of new cars sold during the first half of 2022 were zero-emission vehicles, per the California Energy Commission. Almost 10% of cars sold around the world were electric last year.
Seventeen states have vehicle emissions rules connected to California’s actions, and could decide to create new regulations like those California is attempting to push.
Republicans wrote to Biden, asking him to “reject California’s forthcoming request for this waiver due to widespread concerns for the negative impact it will have on the electric grid, the need for additional power generation, the overreliance on foreign adversaries for critical minerals, and the right of Americans to choose for themselves which vehicles they wish to drive.”
They said it is “disconcerting that California is attempting to ban ICE vehicles when there have already been real world examples showing California’s grid will not be able to handle the increased electric load,” reportedly discussing how the government asked people who live in California not to charge their electric cars during a heat wave following the news about the policy change.
During California’s recent heat wave, residents were asked to reduce power use when solar energy generation was not available, creating a situation many realize will not improve with more cars on the road and an undependable electric grid.
