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Senate Republicans block California's 2035 electric vehicle plan
WASHINGTON − The Senate opted to block California's landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only cars by 2035, in a near-party-line vote May 22.
Republicans employed a controversial procedural tactic to skirt the chamber's filibuster, which typically creates a 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. One Democrat, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, voted in favor of the move, against her party.
The 51-44 vote repealed a waiver issued under former President Joe Biden's administration, which allowed California to set their own clean air standards, higher than those of the federal government.
The move will likely escalate political tensions between the Trump administration and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Democrats in Congress denounced the federal government overruling an individual state's decision, along with Republicans rule-skirting legislative approach.
"California has a right to protect its own people. From dirty air and dirty water," Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, said in a post May 21, in anticipation of the vote.
"It is a precedent they will come to regret," he added. "That's the thing about a slippery slope. You can be the one who starts down the slope but you don't get to be the one who decides where the ride stops."
Meanwhile, Republicans criticized the Golden State for the damage they said such a regulation would have on the American auto industry − making the matter a nationwide concern.
"The Biden administration and Congressional Democrats tried to block the will of the American people." Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, said in a statement, "but Congress has now spoken and soundly rejected this rule."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate blocks California's EV plan in controversial move
