Trump’s EPA to help Congress dissolve CARB waivers

Trump, with new control over EPA, has a significant interest in revoking environmental regulations such as those in California. The state already gave up pursuing a waiver for its other heavy-duty EV mandate ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

Omnibus and ACT are CARB’s most significant regulations targeting heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Heavy-Duty Omnibus, which establishes historically low standards for pollutants like NOx, received an EPA waiver in December, during Biden’s last weeks as president. ACT, which implements a zero-emission vehicle sales requirement for heavy-duty OEMs, received its EPA waiver in March 2023.

See also: Fleets Explained: Emissions regulations

Several trucking industry groups frequently criticize CARB’s standards. The American Trucking Associations welcomed Zeldin’s announcement.

“This is not the United States of California. California should never be given the keys to set national policy and regulate America’s supply chain,” Chris Spear, ATA’s president and CEO, said. “Thanks to the leadership of the Trump administration, Congress now has one more avenue available to reclaim the keys from Sacramento and restore common sense to our nation’s environmental policies.“

What do the reports do?

Reports like these allow Congress to overturn recent agency rules. It is one of many avenues for the Trump administration to combat environmental regulations.

Under the Congressional Review Act, federal agencies must submit a report on a new rule to Congress and the Government Accountability Office. The report allows Congress to overturn the rule by issuing a joint resolution of disapproval. If both houses of Congress issue a joint resolution of disapproval within a set number of legislative days and the president signs the disapproval, it dissolves the targeted rule and prevents agencies from publishing similar rules in the future.

Although ACT received its EPA waiver nearly two years ago, Zeldin said the agency never submitted a report on it—nor on the Omnibus waiver in December.

“The Biden administration failed to send rules on California’s waivers to Congress, preventing Members of Congress from deciding on extremely consequential actions that have massive impacts and costs across the entire United States,” Zeldin said. “The Trump EPA is transparently correcting this wrong and rightly following the rule of law.”

California’s emissions standards are controversial, and both chambers of Congress have a Republican majority. There is a chance that Congress could dissolve CARB’s heavy-duty waivers. Congressional productivity is not guaranteed, however.