The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday granted the California Air Resources Board (CARB)’s requested waiver to implement and enforce its Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulations for light-duty vehicles.

Under the Clean Air Act, California can adopt emissions requirements independent of EPA’s regulations to meet its significant air quality challenges, a press release from EPA states. The state must seek a waiver from EPA for new motor vehicle emission standards.

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, according to EPA.

After reviewing the information provided by California and comments submitted by the public as well as applying the limited criteria for waiver review under the Clean Air Act, the EPA determined, in each case, that it would be appropriate to grant the waiver request.

The records, included in the waiver decisions, contain public comments on the program’s feasibility, including costs to manufacturers and the lead time provided. EPA’s review found that opponents of the waivers didn’t meet their burden to show how the program is inconsistent with the Clean Air Act.

In response, John Bozzella Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Auto Innovators) president and CEO, said in a written statement that the development was expected and President-elect Donald Trump will likely revoke the waiver in 2025.

“We’ve said the country should have a single, national standard to reduce carbon in transportation but the question about the general authority of California to establish a vehicle emissions program — and for other states to follow that program — is ultimately something for policymakers and the courts to sort out,” he said.

Bozzella then listed Auto Innovators’ concerns:

• • “First, California’s Advanced Clean Cars II is an actual electrification sales mandate and ultimately a ban on the sale of new gas-powered vehicles;
  • “Second, 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;
  • “Third, automakers can produce electrified vehicles but there’s a huge gap between these EV sales mandates and a customer’s (reasonable) expectation they can still choose what kind of vehicle to drive.”

In a Dec. 11 memo, Auto Innovators said it would “take a miracle” for major automakers to meet the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandates in California and 11 other states that have adopted the Advanced Clean Cars II program.

Six of the states — California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont — will start requiring automakers to meet mandates in model year 2026 or calendar year 2025, according to the memo. Colorado, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Mexico, and Maryland start mandates for model year 2027.

The memo says that, beginning next year, 35 out of 100 vehicles sold by every OEM in the first six states will need to be ZEVs. This will climb to 48 out of 100 vehicles for model year 2027, 51 out of 100 in model year 2028, 68 in 2030, 76 in 2031, and 100 out of 100 in 2035.

On Wednesday, Auto Innovators provided the following chart from the memo that outlines those figures:

“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, in EPA’s Wednesday press release. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”

EPA said it continues to review additional waiver requests from California and is working to ensure its decisions are “durable and grounded by law.”

Following EPA’s decision, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) also voiced its concerns, calling it “a significant blow for our nation’s ability to develop groundbreaking solutions for reducing carbon emissions.”

“SEMA contends that by allowing California to overstep its constitutional and state statutory authority, the federal government is a coconspirator in the state’s regulatory land grab to advance deeply unpopular policies that the American people have summarily rejected,” SEMA wrote in a press release. “SEMA, which champions a technology-neutral approach that fosters innovation and ingenuity, will continue efforts to preserve Americans’ rights to vehicle choice and the automotive aftermarket industry’s ability to design, manufacture, and bring to market products that help solve the emissions challenge.”

SEMA called on Trump “to work quickly and efficiently to reverse this stunning misstep at the federal level.”

“Siding with California on these waiver requests is the ultimate bad-faith gesture by President Biden, particularly after the nation’s voters last month backed the presidential candidate who promised a ‘Day 1’ halt to federal EV mandates,” said Mike Spagnola, SEMA president and CEO, in the release. “It’s high time that the government stop capitulating to the whims of a single activist state; this is the United States of America, not the United States of California.

“And shame on the EPA. Instead of putting its faith in our nation’s innovators to develop multiple, groundbreaking solutions to halt carbon emissions, the EPA instead continues to tilt the playing field in favor of a single technology, the products of which are unsuitable for many Americans… SEMA is not an anti-EV organization; rather, the organization is steadfast in its belief that a technology-neutral approach is the best way to achieve lower vehicle emissions.”

SEMA said it will continue to pursue its lawsuit against California and CARB, filed jointly with NTEA – The Work Truck Association, seeking immediate declaratory and injunctive relief to stop EV mandates “CARB intends to implement through its Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulations.”

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