Minnesota drivers free from California EV tyranny
As of this Thursday, Minnesotans are free from California’s onerous electric vehicle mandate.
The Senate on Thursday voted 51-44 to overturn the Biden administration’s approval of California’s Clean Air Act waiver. California’s waiver would require 35 percent of automaker sales to be “zero emissions vehicles,” by 2026, rise to 68 percent in 2030, and ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. The Trump administration is expected to sign the Senate’s resolutions overturning the policy.
California was given the ability under the Clean Air Act, passed in 1967, to set vehicle emissions rules more stringent than the federal government because it was combating smog-related pollutants earlier than other states. In 2009, California was granted a waiver that applied to vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, not just smog-related pollutants.
States can follow federal environmental standards or choose to adopt California’s stricter standards — which Minnesota did in 2021. This forces auto dealers to stock more electric vehicles and raise the prices of ICE vehicles to subsidize their sale. American Experiment estimated that costs would rise up to $2,500 per vehicle. Minnesota and the dozen other states that adopted California’s standards must go along with whatever changes the bureaucrats on the California Air Resources Board may eventually impose on their own state’s drivers.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board pointed out the shortfalls of California’s emissions policies (gift link):
A dozen or so other states have also adopted California’s rules. But auto makers aren’t anywhere close to meeting the quotas. In 2023 EVs made up a mere 13% of sales for traditional car makers in California, 8% in Massachusetts and 6% in New York.
Auto makers warn the quotas would force them to produce fewer gas cars. Prices would almost certainly rise to offset their EV losses. The mandate would harm workers, too. Auto makers have shed jobs as they ratchet up EV production. Michigan has lost 11,600 motor vehicle and parts jobs in the past two years.
This explains why Michigan’s Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin joined Republicans in killing the California quotas. “I have a special responsibility to stand up for the more than one million Michiganders whose livelihoods depend on the U.S. auto industry,” she said.
California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta has promised to sue the administration once the resolutions are signed, arguing that the Senate sidestepped procedural rules and that the Congressional Review Act would not apply to this waiver. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota argued in a piece for the Washington Examiner that the Government Accountability Office improperly intervened to protect the rule by declaring “that rules submitted to Congress are not actually rules.”
We will have to wait for the legal battles to shake out, but Minnesotans should be allowed to drive the cars they’d like at a reasonable cost — not be forced toward EVs by California bureaucrats. The Senate’s actions are a great first step.