The California Air Resources Board passed a regulation in 2022 called Advanced Clean Cars II, or ACC II. It mandated that 35% of vehicles an automaker produced and delivered for sale, which can include vehicles wholesaled to dealers and not yet sold to retail customers, in the state of California for the 2026 model year must be zero-emission (electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles or plug-ins, though PHEVs only receive partial credit). Automakers faced fines of up to $20,000 on each noncompliant vehicle, or they had the option to purchase limited available credits from other automakers. Five other states — Oregon, Washington, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont — also followed the requirement starting with the 2026 model year, measuring the percentage of vehicles wholesaled in those individual states.
In the 2027 model year, the regulation increased to 43%, and five additional states and Washington, D.C., joined at the higher percentage: Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey, New Mexico and Rhode Island. The requirement then rose eight percentage points per model year until it required that all vehicles sold by an automaker in each state be ZEV in the 2035 model year and beyond.
A special thank you to Sen. Capito, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who introduced a resolution against the California ACCII EV mandate. Sen. Capito led the Senate through a series of procedural steps earlier this summer to allow the CRA to be considered, which ultimately passed through Congress.
Sen. Capito was a keynote speaker at WVADA’s annual convention this June, where she discussed her role in eliminating the ACCII EV mandate.
After the Senate voted 51-46 on the motion to proceed to Sen. Capito’s Advanced Clean Cars II CRA, she delivered remarks on the Senate floor detailing the process the Senate has taken on the CRA and background on her efforts to block the EV mandate. Watch Sen. Capito’s full remarks.
Excerpts As Delivered by Sen. Capito
The following are Sen. Capito’s floor remarks on the issue:
“Over the past two decades, California has used its waiver authority to push its extreme climate policies on the rest of the country, which was never the intent of the Clean Air Act.”
“California’s Advanced Clean Cars II program requires all, and I did say all, vehicles to be sold in that state, Washington, D.C., and 11 other states that have adopted California regulations, all cars would be zero emission vehicles by 2035, meaning in one decade, these states totaling 30% of the new car market will have a full ban on the sale of gasoline powered vehicles, and not just those, but also on traditional hybrids as well.”
“These job losses will not be confined to California, but they will be spread all across the nation. Workers in auto manufacturing, oil and gas production, and the agriculture sector across this country would lose jobs because of California’s EV mandate, and the elected officials who represent Michigan auto workers, Nebraska corn farmers or West Virginia gas workers had no say in California and EPA’s decision.”
“The decision to limit consumer choice, increase car prices and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs was made by California, and approved by a federal administration that had already been rejected by the American voters.”
“I decided to use the CRA process to introduce this resolution against EPA’s approval of the California electric vehicle mandate for two reasons. First, enactment of the resolution would vacate EPA’s rule approving the California waiver, stopping the EV mandate and protecting consumers and workers across the country. Second, because a vote here in the Senate and in the House would allow the elected representatives of Americans of all 50 states, not just California, to decide whether a nationally significant policy should be implemented.”
“The Biden EPA did not submit its approval of the California EV mandate for review under the CRA and claimed its action was not a rule. That was a clear effort to avoid accountability from Congress. Fortunately, President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin decided to give the American people a say by submitting the approved California waiver to Congress as a rule under the CRA. That submission by the Trump EPA triggered my right, as a senator, to introduce this resolution to block California’s EV mandate.”
“Nothing in the Congressional Review Act, Senate rules or Senate precedents gives unelected staff at the GAO the authority to prevent elected senators from considering a resolution of disapproval against a rule.”
“A GAO opinion has never been used to cut off the Senate’s ability to consider a CRA resolution of disapproval when the federal agency actually submitted the rule to Congress. In fact, GAO has repeatedly recognized that its legal opinions are unnecessary when agencies submit a rule to Congress.”
“My Democrat colleagues argue that there will be profound institutional consequences by the use of the Senate not allowing GAO a veto over the use of the CRA against agency-submitted rules. I, on the other hand, disagree. Such a GAO veto has never existed before, and we must remember that the CRA is all about protecting the authority of elected representatives over unelected agencies.”
“My Democrat colleagues say that our action today undermines the legislative filibuster, and that is simply not true. I support the legislative filibuster. I have supported the legislative filibuster as a senator in the majority and as a senator in the minority.”
“I want to make two things crystal clear: The procedural action we have taken today is not about the filibuster and not about the Parliamentarian. Instead, the procedural issue before the Senate was simply whether GAO staff should be able to block resolutions of disapproval against agency-submitted rules. I have explained why my answer to that is no.”
“Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats to shield this EV mandate from the will of the American people, the Senate will have its say. I urge my colleagues to vote tomorrow for the resolution of disapproval.”
If you have not already done so, please thank Sen. Capito for sponsoring this joint resolution. Direct your emails to JT Jezierski at jt_jezierski@capito.senate.gov and Adam Tomlinson at adam_tomlinson@epw.senate.gov.
