President Donald Trump signed three resolutions Thursday barring California from mandating electric vehicle sales and setting tailpipe emissions standards designed to galvanize the transition away from combustion engines.
The resolutions undo California’s 2024 landmark decision to ban new gasoline-powered car sales by 2035 and revoke the federal waiver that allows it to set its own tailpipe emissions standards under the Clean Air Act. Seventeen states representing 30% of the U.S. vehicle market had adopted the plan, which Trump has called California’s “EV mandate.”
With Trump’s move, the 17 states will no longer be able to enforce California’s standards mandating electric vehicle sales by 2035. Trump also repealed California’s plan to require a rising number of zero-emissions heavy-duty truck sales.
“We officially rescued the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating the California electric vehicle mandate once and for all,” Trump said at a White House news conference.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that California will sue to “stop this latest illegal action by a President who is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big polluters.”
Trump and Newsom are also squaring off over Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to quell protests in Los Angeles over his administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement actions.
It also has put Trump at odds with his onetime close adviser Elon Musk, with the CEO of Tesla, with whom he had a very public falling-out last week, though tensions have since cooled. Trump had blamed the split in part on his move against electric vehicles.
At Thursday’s news conference, Trump said of Musk: “Now we know why Elon doesn’t like me so much, which he does. Actually, he does,”
The resolutions drew sweeping support from automakers, while climate advocates said the announcement kneecaps climate action in the United States and forfeits the electric vehicle market to countries like China. Transportation accounts for the largest share of emissions in the United States, making up 28% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
“The chief winners of this move are the oil industry and China,” said Michael Gerrard, the founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “Electric vehicles are the main threat to the demand for oil, and this move further cements China as the global leader in producing electric vehicles.”
China accounted for two-thirds of global electric car sales last year, a jump from 50% in 2021.
“Instead of investing in electric vehicle manufacturing here in the U.S. and leading us towards a healthier future, the administration is dead set on pushing us backwards and ceding EV innovation and leadership to China,” said Katherine Garcia, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All program. “The Sierra Club will continue to fight for clean transportation solutions across the country.”
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin thanked Trump in a statement and said California’s waivers had limited “consumer choice for Americans in every state.”
Automobile trade associations and automakers, many of whom were at Thursday’s news conference, widely applauded Trump’s announcement.
“We have long advocated for one national standard that will allow us to stay competitive, continue to invest in U.S. innovation, and offer customer choice across the broadest lineup of gas-powered and electric vehicles,” said a spokesperson for General Motors in a statement.
Chris Spear, CEO and president of the American Trucking Association, said, “Today, common sense prevailed.”
