EPA sends four California clean-air rules to Congress for permanent repeal

California started regulating vehicle emissions in 1966, four years before Congress passed the Clean Air ActClean Air ActThe 1970 federal statute authorizing EPA to set and enforce national air pollution standards and, after Massachusetts v. EPA, to regulate greenhouse gases.Key ConceptClean Air ActThe 1970 federal statute authorizing EPA to set and enforce national air pollution standards and, after Massachusetts v. EPA, to regulate greenhouse gases.Open conceptBookmark. When Congress enacted the Clean Air Act in 1970, it wrote in a waiver specifically for California — the only state with pre-existing vehicle emission standards. Republican Governor Ronald Reagan had signed the legislation creating the California Air Resources Board in 1967, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board in response to the dangerous smog blanketing Los Angeles.

The 1968 federal Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, and then the 1970 Clean Air ActClean Air ActThe 1970 federal statute authorizing EPA to set and enforce national air pollution standards and, after Massachusetts v. EPA, to regulate greenhouse gases.Key ConceptClean Air ActThe 1970 federal statute authorizing EPA to set and enforce national air pollution standards and, after Massachusetts v. EPA, to regulate greenhouse gases.Open conceptBookmark, preempted states from setting their own vehicle-emission standards — but Congress wrote in a carve-out for California because California had standards in place before March 1966. EPA has granted California waivers more than 75 times since the 1960s. Every administration since Nixon, Republican and Democratic, honored that authority for over 50 years before Zeldin's EPA adopted a new legal theory in 2025.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin transmitted four California vehicle-emissions waiver rules to Congress on June 12, 2026 under the Congressional Review ActCongressional Review Act1996 law letting Congress overturn federal agency regulations with a simple majority vote.Key ConceptCongressional Review Act1996 law letting Congress overturn federal agency regulations with a simple majority vote.Open conceptBookmark: the Advanced Clean Cars I authority covering model years 2017-2025, small off-road engine amendments, greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles already in dealer pipelines, and a fourth rule targeting pre-existing emission controls. Zeldin called the submission a "statutory obligation," a framing California AG Rob Bonta called "extreme and unlawful." Both GAO opinions on record — B-334309 (2023) and B-337179 (2025) — concluded that California waiver decisions are adjudicatory orders under the APA, not rules subject to CRA review. EPA submitted the waivers to Congress anyway without explaining the discrepancy. California's federal lawsuit is the one that will decide.

The Congressional Review Act gives Congress 60 legislative days to pass a resolution of disapproval after receiving a rule. CRA resolutions are immune from Senate filibuster — only 51 votes are needed. But the feature that makes CRA use against California's waivers most consequential is the permanent bar: under 5 U.S.C. § 801(b)(2), once a CRA disapproval is signed into law, EPA can't issue any rule in "substantially the same form" without new statutory authorization from Congress. A future Democratic president can't simply re-grant the waiver. Congress would have to pass a new law.

Sixteen states plus Washington, D.C. follow California's vehicle standards under Section 177 of the Clean Air Act, including New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Section 177 states can only adopt California standards — they can't set independent rules of their own. If California's waiver is stripped, the Section 177 states automatically lose the standards they adopted along with it. California and Section 177 states together accounted for more than 40 percent of new light-duty vehicle registrations in the United States in 2023. No vote from any of those 16 states' legislatures or governors is required before Congress acts.

This EPA action was the second round of CRA submissions against California's waiver authority. In early 2025, EPA sent three California EV-related waivers to Congress — Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks, and the Heavy-Duty Engine Omnibus NOx rule. Congress passed resolutions disapproving all three, and Trump signed them into law on June 10, 2025. Those three 2025 CRA actions were the first time in history Congress used the CRA against California's Clean Air Act waiver authority. The June 2026 submission reached back further — targeting an Obama-era waiver that the 2025 round hadn't touched.

Auto manufacturers face direct regulatory uncertainty when federal and California standards diverge. Ford, General Motors, and Toyota have all lobbied on the waiver question because designing two different versions of the same vehicle model — one to California standards, one to weaker federal standards — is prohibitively expensive. Most manufacturers design to the stricter California standard for their entire lineup to sell in all Section 177 markets. That makes California's waiver de facto national policy for vehicle engineering, and waiver uncertainty disrupts production planning that manufacturers began 5-7 years before a model year arrives.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) introduced a House CRA resolution to formally disapprove California's Advanced Clean Cars I authority after Zeldin's June 2026 submission. Kiley represents California's 3rd Congressional District — a rural Northern California district — making him a California Republican using federal power to repeal his own state's environmental regulations. The resolution, if passed and signed, would permanently bar EPA from reinstating the waiver in substantially the same form without new legislation.

Nearly 20 million Californians live under extreme ozone non-attainment conditions. Seven of the ten cities with the worst air pollution in the United States are in California, according to the American Lung Association. The June 2026 submission didn't only target EV standards — it also targeted California's small off-road engine amendments. A single commercial lawn mower can generate more smog-forming volatile organic compounds per hour than a car. These are the traditional smog-prevention regulations that control air quality in neighborhoods already breathing some of the most polluted air in the country.

The burden falls hardest on communities of color. According to CARB data, 92.9 percent of residents in California's most pollution-burdened AB617 communities are people of color — communities that disproportionately live near ports, warehouses, and major roadways where engine emissions concentrate. A Science Advances study found PM2.5 exposure disparities persist in California despite strict vehicle controls, meaning the standards are working but haven't yet closed the racial gap.

California and 10 other states filed suit in State of California et al. v. United States et al., No. 4:25-cv-04966-HSG (N.D. Cal.), challenging EPA's authority to transmit existing waivers to Congress as CRA-eligible rules. California argues that waiver grants are adjudicatory decisions — EPA approving a specific state request — not rules of general applicability subject to CRA review. The APA's arbitrary and capricious standard is California's primary litigation tool: EPA adopted a new legal interpretation without rulemaking notice or public comment. In October 2025, the state coalition filed an amended complaint. Courts were expected to rule no earlier than early 2026 on whether the CRA clock can even run.