Senate Republicans are revving up to torch a Biden-era rule that would – if not stopped -- let California play eco-dictator to the nation.
As reported by Wallace White at The Daily Caller on April 5, 2025, teams of GOP Senators and Congressmen are gunning to dismantle an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver that effectively greenlights California’s scheme to impose a de facto electric vehicle (EV) mandate on millions of Americans — whether those consumers like it or not.
This isn’t just a policy spat; it’s a constitutional cage match, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
As I reported in December, with a flick of his pen, Amtrak Joe granted Gavin Newsom and the California Air Regulatory Bureau (CARB) an EPA waiver to phase out gasoline-powered cars, a move that’s part of Sacramento’s “Advanced Clean Cars II” plan.
By 2035, if California gets its way, every new car sold in the state will be electric or hydrogen-powered, and thanks to the waiver, 11 other states and Washington, D.C., are poised to follow suit. Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—all ready to march lockstep into this green dystopia.
And since California’s population is so large, many automobile manufacturers mold their output to fit the state’s diktats. This means that the Golden State’s poison could ripple nationwide, leaving most American consumers with little other choice.
But Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Friday pushed back.
White notes that Capito:
“…unveiled a resolution Friday afternoon to repeal that vehicle emissions rule despite an adverse ruling from a congressional watchdog and a nonpartisan Senate official arguing the EPA waiver was not subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Capito continued to argue that the California EV waivers are rules that can be repealed under the CRA in a statement Friday.”
And other GOP Senators took their own action in order to stop a separate California attack on heavy-duty trucks and diesel vehicles.
“Republican Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma also introduced resolutions Friday to terminate California’s vehicle emission rules establishing a de facto ban on heavy-duty trucks and diesel engines.”
On the House side of Capitol Hill, it’s been up to the GOP, as well, while the Democrats remain virtually mum.
“House Republicans, led by Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvania, Jay Obernolte of California and John James of Michigan, moved forward in introducing a CRA resolution to overturn the California EV waivers Wednesday night.”
In fact, some Democrats didn’t merely remain neutral, they actively fought to perpetuate the EPA-California manipulation and market strangulation.
Much of the contention hinges on the capacity of the GOP Senators and Congress members to employ the aforementioned CRA, a tool designed to claw back federal agency rules that overstep their statutory bounds. In December, the Supreme Court declined to hear or rule on the constitutionality of the EPA’s waiver, leaving the matter to be disputed in Congress.
As a result, in February, Capito and House Republicans signaled their intent to file CRA resolutions, but weeks dragged on without action. Meanwhile, Democratic Senators Alex Padilla (CA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Adam Schiff (CA) ran to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to ask if the CRA could even touch the EPA’s waiver, and on March 6, the GAO said, in essence, “No,” claiming the waiver isn’t a “rule” subject to CRA rollback. Capito fired back, insisting the waiver’s fair game. She’s right to fight, but the clock’s ticking.
And, for those who care about truth, peaceful interaction, and the U.S. Constitution, this CRA fight is the wrong one, on the wrong battlefield.
The keys are easy to see.
First, there is the Constitution-insulting EPA itself. This isn’t just about EVs or California’s green fever dreams—it’s about an agency that’s been a constitutional abomination since its inception in 1970. Nowhere in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution does Congress get the power to regulate air quality or car emissions. The EPA’s existence hinges on a flimsy interpretation of the Commerce Clause, stretched to such surreal dimensions, that, as James Madison warned, it incorrectly claims for the feds the power to control all commerce between willing individuals across state lines.
Second, there is the “carve-out” granted by the feds that allows California to FURTHER crush free enterprise. Under a typical, traditional view of federalism, one might think that states could produce their own rules regarding air pollution, but with the imposition in 1967 of the federal Clean Air Act, the feds eliminated that potentiality.
Related: California's Gas-Powered Vehicle Ban: How It Impacts Drivers and the Economy
They eliminated it, save for one state.
Because of the smog in LA and due to heavy political pressure, the EPA granted California a special carve-out to set its own emissions standards.
Again, some might see this as at least a vestige of federalism, but a close analysis of the Constitution shows scholars that, under a real application of constitutional standards, the state of California is not supposed to set restrictions on peaceful market activity. These kinds of prior restraint from a state government are forbidden by the U.S. Constitution’s “Contract Clause,” which stipulates that no state government can interfere with the fulfillment of already-agreed-to private contracts. Similarly, the California demand – and any demand by any government – to find out what someone’s “emissions” are, or what a car’s “efficiency” is also breach the Fourth Amendment because they demand information without a proper, judge-issued warrant for such information, and the penalties levied against manufacturers or car users are punishments that are delivered without due process, which is a breach of the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments.
Tom Pyle of the Institute for Energy Research told The Daily Caller that GOP leadership sees this as a chance to honor President Trump’s pledge to restore consumer choice.
“’The pieces are in place,’ Pyle said, ‘and I’m confident they will deliver.’”
Let’s hope so, because the alternative is a nation of EV drones, courtesy of unelected bureaucrats and California’s nanny-state overlords.
But the road ahead is uncertain. The Senate parliamentarian could still throw a wrench in the CRA plan, and with Democrats dug in, the GOP needs every vote to line up. If they pull it off, they’ll strike a blow against not just California’s EV pipedream, but the EPA’s unchecked power grab. This isn’t about hating electric cars—it’s about who gets to decide: you, or some faceless regulator in D.C. siding with Sacramento’s elitists.
In an American system of governance that aligned more closely with the U.S. Constitution, this would not be a problem. The EPA would not exist to push us around, and states also would be prohibited from doing so.
But in a world where government-funded, Climate Cult-backed, special-interest catering witch-hunts against “carbon emissions” emit lie after lie to push the unfounded notion that use of the efficient internal combustion engine is causing an “anthropogenic climate catastrophe,” this kind of state-based clampdown on freedom often gets little attention in the pop media.
It will be up to us to spread the truth.