Republicans argue California<\/a> has become the nation’s de facto emissions regulator \u2014 as manufacturers rarely create separate product lines for the Golden State and instead are inclined to build to California\u2019s standards, creating implicit national requirements.<\/p>\n Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. \u2014 a top member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW)<\/a> \u2014 is leading the effort alongside Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb. They argue EPA waivers granted to California during the Obama and Biden administrations under the Clean Air Act have turned narrow environmental exceptions into de facto climate regulation, advancing the state’s sweeping climate agenda.<\/p>\n “California’s climate zealots have run roughshod over the rest of the country for too long,” Lummis told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n CALIFORNIA SUES TRUMP EPA OVER MOVE TO SUBJECT STATE VEHICLE EMISSIONS WAIVERS TO CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW<\/a><\/p>\n “Under Governor Newsom<\/a>, Sacramento has decided it can dictate what Wyoming families drive and what equipment our small businesses use. That ends today.”<\/p>\n Last year, lawmakers successfully rescinded three Biden-era EPA waivers allowing California to create emissions standards for trucks, cars and buses that they said gave the state outsized regulatory control. Thursday\u2019s package goes a step further by targeting earlier EPA decisions they say laid the legal foundation for those now-rescinded regulations.<\/p>\n Each resolution uses the Congressional Review Act<\/a> (CRA) to nullify a different EPA waiver. The CRA gives Congress the power to check agencies’ executive power.<\/p>\n NEWSOM, WALZ URGE CONGRESS TO BLOCK ANTI-CLIMATE BILL IN THEIR \u2018WOKE\u2019 CRUSADE<\/a><\/p>\n Because the CRA bars agencies from issuing rules that are “substantially the same” without new authorization from Congress, Republicans argue overturning the waivers would prevent future administrations from simply reinstating them \u2014 which targets the legal foundation of such carveouts.<\/p>\n Collectively, the package targets California’s authority over gas-powered lawn equipment, passenger vehicle emissions standards, the Advanced Clean Cars program<\/a> and the original 2009 EPA waiver allowing Sacramento to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.<\/p>\n In the 1960s, the Clean Air Act gave California a narrow carve-out to seek EPA waivers for emissions rules that could be stricter than federal standards \u2014 but critics say the exemption, originally intended to address severe Los Angeles smog<\/a>, has been weaponized to force manufacturing changes that reverberate across the country.<\/p>\n Andrew Bray, an executive with the National Association of Landscape Professionals, whose members rely on small off-road engines affected by the waivers, said he supports a responsible transition to lower-emission equipment \u2014 but underlined that it must come from “practical innovation” and not government mandates.<\/p>\n TRUMP\u2019S REINDUSTRIALIZATION AGENDA FACES ITS BIGGEST HURDLE \u2014 AMERICANS<\/a><\/p>\n Pumpjacks operate in the Belridge oil field on November 3, 2021, near McKittrick, California. The Biden administration pledged to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production yesterday. In California, 35,000 oil and gas wells sit idle, many of which are unplugged and could leak methane gas. Scientists estimate that one-third of human-induced global warming is caused by methane. (Photo by Mario Tama\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n “This resolution is a critical step in securing the flexibility businesses need while technology continues to advance,” Bray said. Michael Lee of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America added that the legislative process, not state-specific fiats with “nationwide consequences,” is the way to address the situation.<\/p>\n The four lawmakers leading the fight said in a release that California regulators have “abandoned any pretense of addressing local air quality and turned the waiver process into a backdoor for imposing a radical climate agenda on the entire country\u2026 without a single vote in Congress.”<\/p>\n Lummis’ resolution would rescind a 2025 waiver granted just before President Donald Trump took office that she said allowed California to phase out gas-powered small engines such as chainsaws and leaf blowers.<\/p>\n In doing so, manufacturers would no longer be inclined to transition to electric or zero-emission models<\/a>.<\/p>\n TRUMP’S EPA CHIEF PUSHES BACK ON CLIMATE SKEPTICS BEING LABELED ‘SCIENCE DENIERS’<\/a><\/p>\n A California oil field in McKittrick, left, and a Chrysler plant in the U.S., right. (Ty Wright\/Getty Images; Getty Images)<\/p>\n Lummis’ resolution targets a 2025 EPA waiver that allowed California to move toward phasing out new gas-powered small engines such as chainsaws, leaf blowers and lawn mowers. Supporters say repealing the waiver would remove regulatory pressure encouraging manufacturers to transition those products toward zero-emission technology.<\/p>\n Husted\u2019s resolution targets a 2022 EPA waiver that restored California\u2019s authority to continue its Advanced Clean Cars program.<\/p>\n “Ohioans shouldn\u2019t be forced to follow California\u2019s lead when it comes to policies that make everyday life more expensive and less convenient,” he told Fox News Digital on Thursday.<\/p>\n Ricketts said the situation is proof that the Obama-Biden era of “overregulation and red tape” continues to cost Nebraskans and Americans writ large millions of dollars, citing his state’s massive agricultural industry as an example of regulatory reverberations from Sacramento.<\/p>\n EUROPE’S ‘GREEN IDEOLOGY’ CLIMATE AGENDA RISKS CRUSHING ITS INDUSTRY, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER WARNS<\/a><\/p>\n “They used California policies as a backdoor EV mandate and even tried to control how we cut our grass,” he said. His CRA resolution targets an Obama-era waiver originally authorizing the clean car program, while Schmitt seeks repeal of a waiver granted just months after President George W. Bush left office that allows California to enforce greenhouse gas emissions standards for new passenger vehicles beginning with the 2009 model year.<\/p>\n Schmitt said the waivers allow Sacramento to “continue to punish” manufacturers around the country and affect consumer choice and costs through their “climate alarmist rules.”<\/p>\n Together, Republicans say the four resolutions represent Congress’ broadest effort yet to unshackle states and manufacturers from California’s emissions framework<\/a> by targeting not only individual regulations but the EPA decisions they argue made those regulations possible.<\/p>\n SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order during an event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Biden has called for half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. to be capable of emissions-free driving by the end of the decade, an ambitious goal that automakers say can only be achieved with bigger government investment in charging stations and other infrastructure. (Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Opponents are expected to counter that the effort would undermine California’s longstanding authority under the Clean Air Act to adopt stricter environmental standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"oilemissions\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/oilemissions.jpg\")
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