California scored a win for clean air today, as a DC court blocked a republican attempt to end the state’s clean air standards. It’s not the first time California has prevailed in a similar case, against similar illegal attacks meant to impose more pollution.
There’s a bit of history here, and I’ll try to recap it quickly.
In the 1950s and 60s, air in California was incredibly polluted. Between car-based infrastructure, vehicles with no pollution controls, and LA’s geography nestled amongst mountains, citizens of LA were exposed to basically unbreathable air – which was so dirty that you often couldn’t even see those mountains that surrounded the city.
So, the state of California did something about it. It passed clean air legislation, first in the country to do so. That influenced the rest of the nation to pass a Clean Air Act of its own, but since California had gotten there first and had such uniquely bad pollution, an exemption was added to the federal Clean Air Act allowing California to set its own emissions standards, as long as they were stronger than the federal government’s.
California’s clean air rules worked, reducing pollution drastically
For more than five decades, California has repeatedly applied for and received waivers (over 100 of them) to allow it to set those emissions rules, and they’ve worked. Vehicle-based pollutants dropped by 98% in the last half century in the LA basin, though there is still work to be done.
Other states can choose to follow the federal rules or California’s rules, and 16 states have adopted some portion of California’s clean air rules.
Despite the protestations of industry at the time and since, these rules have not made it impossible for them to operate, or sell cars, or profit from selling cars, in California or any other states that follow its rules.
California’s newest set of rules is set to save Californians, and the residents of other states who follow them, hundreds of billions of dollars on health, fuel, and maintenance costs through 2050 by encouraging electrification – and of course will save thousands of lives due to pollution reductions.
But that just won’t do for the enemies of America, so republicans have done all they can to stop it.
Republicans used an illegal move in 2025 to try to make CA’s air dirty
Last year, republicans in Congress illegally used a procedural move called the Congressional Review Act to try to rescind some of California’s clean air waivers, with the help of EPA’s Lee Zeldin. The CRA allows Congress to take an emergency vote to nullify any rule implemented by executive branch agencies within the last 60 days.
The problem is, this move came more than 60 days after the waiver was granted, so the CRA wouldn’t apply. Furthermore, the waiver is not a “rule,” it is rather an “order.” The CRA can be used on rules, but not on orders.
The EPA, under chief saboteur Lee Zeldin, had attempted to retroactively reclassify the order as a rule, thus triggering an opportunity for Congress to invoke the CRA. The CRA action applied not only to California’s light-duty vehicle rules, but also to heavy duty truck emissions rules.
America’s major auto lobby, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation run by John Bozzella (who can’t do basic math), even stepped into the fight, siding with polluters and against humanity in opposing clean air, and hailed the illegal move.
(Notably, almost every auto company is part of that lobby group, which strangely lobbied to make itself less competitive on the global market, where EV sales are booming. California’s rules could force the auto industry to ship up and build the advanced cars the world wants, but the auto lobby apparently would prefer those jobs go to China)
Everyone with a few neurons to rub together (i.e., not John Bozzella) knew the move was illegal at the time – such that we at Electrek labeled Congress’ action “impotent.” But many other media headlines blithely reported that republicans had prevailed in their efforts to cause harm to the most populous state and the economic and agricultural engine of the US.
Since the action was so obviously illegal, California sued over it, and we said they’d be likely to win. This week, a DC court finally recognized the illegality at hand here, and put a stop to it.
Court recognizes illegality of republican attacks on clean air
In a ruling late Wednesday, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction against the EPA, stating that the “waivers are properly considered adjudicatory orders under the [Administrative Procedures Act], and therefore under the CRA, for both procedural and substantive reasons.”
The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) is the law which describes the process government agencies must go through when setting rules. It has been invoked many, many times by courts in recent years to stop republican overreach on rules that are deemed “arbitrary and capricious.”
This is another example of such. The court wrote in its preliminary injunction that California is likely to prevail on the merits of the case after a full trial. But since it’s so obvious from the get-go that California is in the right and Zeldin’s EPA is in the wrong, the court didn’t want to wait for the full trial, and told the EPA to knock it off right now.
It’s not the first time republicans have lost this fight
It’s not the first time that former reality TV host Donald Trump has tried to reverse California’s clean air rules. After losing the 2016 election by 3 million votes, he nevertheless was allowed to squat in the White House and attempt to attack Americans’ health and pocketbooks, which he put significant effort into doing (when he wasn’t too busy tweeting).
Those attacks involved the EPA, under oil and coal stooges Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler, trying to revoke California’s waiver, an effort they ultimately failed in, due to the same incompetence displayed in this instance (and so many others).
And just like last time, I’ll take a one-sentence victory lap – I predicted the first effort wouldn’t succeed, and predicted this one wouldn’t either. If you want to give me a pat on the back (and save money on your electricity bill), you can click my affiliate link below to set up a solar consultation.
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