Court halts Trump effort to help Congress overturn California clean car rules

A federal judge late Wednesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration effort to overturn California’s clean car rules through Congress.

Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of former President Obama, blocked an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) move that would have allowed Congress and President Trump to overturn California rules related to vehicle and lawn equipment emissions.

In years past, the EPA allowed these regulations to move forward by granting waivers that exempted them from the Clean Air Act’s preemption of state laws that are stricter than federal standards.

In June, the agency classified these waivers as “rules, “ an effort to let Congress overturn them using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows lawmaker to nix recently passed rules with simple majority votes and presidential approval.

“The central problem for EPA is that the waivers themselves explicitly state that they are not rules, while the CRA limits invocation of this statute only to agency rules of general applicability, which EPA, in its own words, has emphatically stated Clean Air Act waiver orders are not,” Howell wrote in her ruling.

She said that the agency was trying to get the court to engage in “Orwellian doublethink, offering two explanations simultaneously” for its move.

In her ruling, Howell said that California is likely to ultimately succeed on the merits of the case, and she ordered a return to the status quo prior to the EPA’s June action.

The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta celebrated the ruling, saying in a statement that “California is taking many steps forward to protect the environment and public health while President Trump is taking six steps back.”

“For 50 years, both Democratic and Republican administrations have upheld California’s authority to enforce state emission standards, but this administration thinks it can roll back the clock and sow chaos even while our lawsuit plays out in court. Today’s decision is a key victory that rebuffs President Trump’s prior efforts. Federal emission standards should be a baseline to protect our future, not a ceiling to limit it,” Bonta said.

Last year, congressional Republicans separately overturned California’s gas-car phaseout using the CRA . That move was challenged in a separate, ongoing case.