EPA Grants Waiver for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II Regulations

December 18, 2024

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(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Agency additionally grants waiver for low-NOx regulations for heavy-duty and off-road vehicles and engines -- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is granting two requests from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for waivers to implement and enforce its Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulations for light-duty vehicles, and its “Omnibus” low-NOx regulation for heavy-duty highway and off-road vehicles and engines. Under the Clean Air Act, California is afforded the ability to adopt emissions requirements independent from EPA’s regulations to meet its significant air quality challenges. The state must seek a waiver from EPA for new motor vehicle emission standards.

After reviewing the information provided by California, reviewing comments submitted by the public, and applying the limited criteria for waiver review under the Clean Air Act, EPA determined in each case that it would be appropriate to grant both waiver requests. The records, included in the waiver decisions, contain public comments on the programs’ feasibility, including costs to manufacturers and the lead time provided. EPA’s review found that opponents of the waivers did not meet their burden to show how either program is inconsistent with the Clean Air Act.

“California has longstanding authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”

The ACC II program is a single coordinated package of requirements for model year 2026 through 2035 and beyond for on-road light- and medium-duty engines and vehicles. The ACC II regulations include revisions to both California’s Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) and Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) regulations.

CARB projects that the ACC II program will reduce smog and soot-causing pollutants – including fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as well as oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and hydrocarbons (HC), which are precursors of ground-level ozone – as well as reduce greenhouse gases and toxic air pollutants.

CARB projects that its Low-NOx standards will protect communities from dangerous NOx pollution that mixes in the atmosphere to form ground-level ozone, commonly called “smog,” which can lead to costly and harmful health impacts such as increased illnesses, asthma attacks, lost days of work or school, and hospitalizations.

EPA has taken public comment on both the ACC II and Low-NOx regulation waiver requests from state and local governments, health and environmental organizations, industry, and other stakeholders. These final decisions are based on those comments, as well as EPA’s evaluation of CARB’s requests according to Clean Air Act requirements and other information in the record, including that submitted by California. EPA maintains a webpage for information on California waivers and authorizations that sets out EPA’s administrative process for California waivers and authorization.

EPA continues reviewing additional waiver requests from California and is working to ensure its decisions are durable and grounded by law. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Legal Planet: EPA just made the incoming Trump Administration’s efforts to stop the move toward clean, zero emission vehicles a whole lot tougher. And ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision overturning deference to agency actions, Loper Bright v Raimondo, may help California in any litigation over the legitimacy of the waiver request.

EPA finally granted California waivers (which are essentially permission slips) almost a year after the state submitted them to implement two major state programs to cut emissions from the transportation sector. One, called the Advanced Clean Car II rule, would phase out emissions altogether from cars and light trucks by 2035. Another, called the Omnibus Low Nox rule, would require truck fleets to cut NOx pollution rapidly over the next decade. Notably, in granting the Advanced Clean Car waiver, EPA relied heavily on the fact that the program cuts traditional air pollutants, including those that cause ozone pollution, from vehicles. The fact that the standards also cut greenhouse gases is a secondary consideration. That makes the legal basis for the waiver very strong and will make it much tougher for the Trump Administration first to withdraw them and then to defend those withdrawals in court.

In granting the waiver, EPA made clear that the California program will cut the air pollutants that cause smog dramatically. By doing so, EPA gave California permission to do what the state has done so effectively for almost 60 years: make cars and trucks cleaner in order to clean up the state’s air.

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California’s power under the federal Clean Air Act to cut pollutants from cars and trucks is unquestionable and longstanding. The state can issue its own pollution standards with a waiver from EPA, as long as they are at least as strong as federal standards and as long as the state has “compelling and extraordinary circumstances” for doing so. As EPA found, the compelling and extraordinary circumstances are these: California needs extremely stringent standards for cars and trucks in order for the state – and especially for Southern California — to meet federal standards for air pollution.

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And because a number of other states follow the California standards as federal law authorizes, a large portion of the country will follow these important programs.

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Courts should also look to whether the agency’s view has been consistent over time. In grounding the waiver decisions in California’s need to tackle air pollution, EPA is interpreting the language in the same way it did right after the Clean Air Act passed (the first waiver was granted in 1969) and in the way the agency has done in the almost sixty years since. The only time EPA has denied waivers are when the Bush Administration and then the first Trump Administration denied California’s waiver requests for cutting greenhouse gases from cars and trucks. The agency has always allowed California to cut emissions to tackle air pollution. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico: “When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars AND electric vehicles,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming press secretary.

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The rules, which cover passenger vehicles through model year 2035 and trucks through 2031, are intended to phase out gasoline-powered cars and set stricter emission limits on smog-forming nitrogen oxides from heavy-duty diesel trucks.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the auto industry’s main trade group, said Wednesday that it expected the waiver to be approved and then revoked under Trump next year. The group released a memo last week arguing that most states don’t have the charging infrastructure to follow California’s electric car mandate, and customers aren’t ready to make the switch at the pace proposed.

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The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to overturn recently passed federal agency rules during a change in administration. However, Wednesday’s waivers explicitly state they shouldn’t be considered subject to the CRA and the Government Accountability Office issued an opinion last year agreeing with that interpretation.

The Trump administration can still revoke approved waivers, as it did in 2019 for an earlier version of California’s clean-car rules. But the approvals give California and other blue states that adopt its rules more power to oppose the decision in court. The move also means a Trump EPA will have to go through an administrative process to revoke the waiver, which took 18 months last time.

California officials have been waiting on the waivers since May 2023 in the case of the car rules, and nearly three years for the nitrogen oxide rule. The state is still waiting on six more waiver requests for everything from locomotives to lawn care equipment. That includes a high-profile rule requiring large truck and bus fleets to transition to electric models. READ MORE

Excerpt from Advanced Clean Tech News: American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear called the NOx waiver “ill-advised” and “short-lived,” calling on the incoming administration and nominated EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to reverse “these misguided policies and restoring common sense to the nation’s environmental policy.”

“California’s mandates have already created significant truck shortages and price increases, needlessly limiting truck sales and purchases in California. These policies are divorced from reality, disregard the operational needs of the trucking industry, and will have adverse consequences for consumers in the price they pay for everyday goods,” added Spear.

Not surprisingly, California Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated the ACC decision.

“The Biden-Harris Administration reaffirmed what we’ve known for decades – California can rise to the challenge of protecting our people by cleaning our air and cutting pollution.”

While Gov. Newsom was applauding the ruling, some industry associations were quick to express their concerns. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a lobbying group that includes OEM members such as Ford, GM, and Toyota, called it a “electrification sales mandate and ultimately a ban on the sale of new gas-powered vehicles.”

“Most of the states that follow California are NOT ready for these requirements. Achieving the sales mandates under current market realities will take a miracle. There needs to be balance and some states should exit the program,” said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

Others, like the Environmental Defense Fund, called the approval “a welcome action to reduce pollution, including in communities where it’s most needed.”

“These standards will have profound benefits for protecting people from traffic pollution. They’ll help curtail pollution from new cars and trucks, while also incentivizing broader deployment of clean technologies and helping to create thousands of new jobs,” said Alice Henderson, Director and Lead Counsel for Transportation and Clean Air Policy for Environmental Defense Fund. READ MORE

Excerpt from Inside EPA: EPA is outlining numerous arguments for why its newly granted preemption waiver for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II program -- including its 100 percent zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) requirement by 2035 -- should survive the Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine or various other legal attacks. Many of the justifications -- detailed in a decision document released Dec. 18 -- echo agency arguments during defenses of prior California waivers as well as federal EPA emissions standards that include electric vehicles as... READ MORE