Senate votes to revoke California’s ability to set air pollution standards

Senate Republicans have voted 51 to 44 to overturn a waiver that allowed California to set stricter air pollution standards for vehicles. The state has received waivers more than 100 times since federal laws granted the right some 50 years ago. Sixteen other states and the District of Columbia follow California’s emissions standards, and most of them have implemented fossil fuel vehicle phase outs. Other Senate votes today repealed waivers that allowed California to set stricter emissions standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. California’s so-called EV mandate is actually a zero-emissions standard. Beginning in 2026, the state was to begin requiring increased sales of zero-emissions cars and passenger trucks until 2035, when automakers would have to sell only zero-emissions vehicles. Currently, two technologies qualify: hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric vehicles. Given the growing pains that fuel cells and hydrogen filling networks have experienced, EVs quickly became ... Read full article.