Congressional vote to overturn California clean car rules could kill New Mexico mandates

Yahoo

24-05-2025

A congressional vote to pass three measures overturning California's strict vehicle pollution standards could spell the end of New Mexico's ability to enforce similar regulations.
The U.S. Senate voted mostly along party lines Thursday to pass the resolutions blocking the coastal state's efforts to push the sale of electric vehicles. The House passed the resolutions a few weeks ago, with a handful of Democrats, including New Mexico's Gabe Vasquez, breaking with the caucus to support the rollback.
In 2022, California adopted its "Advanced Clean Cars II" regulation, which mandates that by 2035 all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state produce zero emissions. A handful of other Democratic-controlled states, including New Mexico, have followed suit, adopting similar regulations to phase in more zero-emission vehicles in an effort to combat climate change.
Thursday's votes overturned three waivers provided to California by the Biden administration that allowed the state to set more rigorous standards than those on the federal level. Other states cannot set their own standards but they are allowed to follow California's, NPR reported a few weeks ago.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign off on the measures. Assuming the action is held up in court — Democrats are arguing Congress didn't have the authority to overturn the regulations — the reversals will have an impact on New Mexico's own clean vehicle standards adopted in 2022 and 2023, Environment Department spokesperson Jorge Armando Estrada wrote in an email. For New Mexico, starting next year, 43% of passenger cars and light-duty trucks and 15% of commercial heavy-duty trucks shipped to local dealerships were supposed to produce zero emissions.
"This is the same authority that underpins New Mexico's rules," Estrada wrote.
The department did not respond Friday evening to follow-up questions about how it plans to proceed.
In a news release Thursday, Western Resource Advocates said the votes "undermine nearly 50 years of precedent under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
"Prior to [the] vote, other states could either rely on the weaker federal standard or adopt these more ambitious emissions standards, so these three rules were the nation's most robust path to decarbonize the transportation sector and protect people from dangerous air pollution," the organization's release said.
The vote comes after the Environment Department announced a proposed clean transportation fuels rule earlier this week, which would create a carbon intensity standard for fuel used in transportation and a credit system for companies making or importing fuels. Stay below the standard, you earn credits; exceed it, and be required to buy credits.
Hybrid market
In the third quarter of 2024, full electric vehicle, hybrid and plug-in hybrid sales hit an all-time high nationally, making up around 21% of the market, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
But adoption isn't even across states.
In 2023, less than 1% of vehicle registrations in New Mexico were for full electric vehicles, according to data reported by the Department of Energy. And at least two states delayed implementation of their own clean vehicle rules in recent weeks — voluntarily.
In a late April executive order, Vermont Gov. Philip Scott, a Republican, said charging infrastructure and technology hasn't kept up with the regulatory schedule.
Some manufacturers are requiring that car dealers sell zero-emission vehicles before internal combustion engine vehicles, reducing the overall supply, Scott wrote. Tariffs are also increasing costs and disrupting the supply chain for the industry, he added.
'I continue to believe we should be incentivizing Vermonters to transition to cleaner energy options like electric vehicles," Scott said in a news release. "However, we have to be realistic about a pace that's achievable. It's clear we don't have anywhere near enough charging infrastructure and insufficient technological advances in heavy-duty vehicles to meet current goals."
A memo sent by Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Director Leah Feldon last week, meanwhile, stated some manufacturers are limiting the sales of internal combustion engine trucks to remain in compliance with the clean trucks requirements, reducing overall vehicle availability for drivers in the state.
'While manufacturers were involved in developing the [Advanced Clean Trucks] framework, they now indicate that ACT requirements are too difficult to meet,' Feldon wrote.
In the memo, Feldon indicated that the department wouldn't be enforcing the regulations or fining manufacturers right away, so long as they kept selling internal combustion engine vehicles to Oregonians without limitations, took 'good faith' efforts to reduce emissions, and continued to follow reporting requirements. Although the stick is gone, the carrot remains: a credit program for zero-emission vehicles sent to the state remains in effect.
'The current federal administration has created significant uncertainty around [zero-emission vehicle] incentives, electric vehicle charging investments, manufacturing and tariffs, each of which threaten a smooth transition to medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs,' Feldon wrote.
Governors push back
A group of governors, including New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Oregon's Tina Kotek and Colorado's Jared Polis, reaffirmed their support for the programs. The U.S. Climate Alliance, of which the 11 governors are members, announced the launch of the Affordable Clean Cars Coalition on Friday.
"The federal government and Congress are putting polluters over people and creating needless chaos for consumers and the market," read a statement from the governors. "But our commitment to safeguarding Americans' fundamental right to clean air is resolute. We will continue collaborating as states and leveraging our longstanding authority under the Clean Air Act, including through state programs..."
They added, "As we consider next steps for our clean vehicle programs, our states will engage stakeholders and industry to provide the regulatory certainty needed while redoubling our efforts to build a cleaner and healthier future."