Congress impotently declares end to CA EV rules it can’t actually end
Republicans in Congress have voted to use its authority under the Congressional Review Act to roll back California’s states’ right to protect its own residents’ lungs and pocketbooks with better emissions rules.
But here’s the thing: Congress doesn’t have that authority, and the republican party is once again just farting in the wind with the sole purpose of letting everyone know that it wants to poison Americans and raise their fuel costs.
We’ve heard plenty of stories recently about how the senile felon squatting in the White House wants to harm Americans. But in the last 100 days of the exact kind of incompetent flailing that anyone with half a brain expected out of him, relatively less attention has been paid to the attempts of republicans in Congress to poison Americans.
Well, they’ve decided to jump into the spotlight and remind everyone just how bad the entire party is, as republicans in Congress have voted to increase pollution and fuel costs for California and 11 other states.
The vote comes in the form of a Congressional Review Act action withdrawing California’s “waiver” from the EPA. For more than half a century, California has asked for and been granted this waiver that allows it to set its own emissions rules. Other states can follow California’s rules (and around 11 states do so, though that amount differs for each rule), as long as they do so exactly, and as long as those rules are stronger than the national ones.
It has this unique authority because California had its own Clean Air Act before the federal Clean Air Act was passed, and because the state had a unique problem with smog at the time and needed stricter rules than the rest of the country. California’s clean air laws have been effective in reducing pollution, with vehicle-based pollutants dropping by 98% in the last 50 years. But of course, there’s still more to be done, as the LA area remains one of the smoggiest in the country.
Despite the protestations of industry at the time and since, these rules have not made it impossible for them to operate, or sell cars, or profit from selling cars, in the region.
And California’s newest set of rules is set to save Californians, and the residents of other states who follow them, hundreds of billions of dollars on health, fuel, and maintenance costs through 2050 by encouraging electrification – and of course will save thousands of lives due to pollution reductions. Republicans targeted not just California’s regulation on light duty vehicles today (ACC II), but tried to roll back some other truck emissions rules yesterday (the ACT and HD low-NOx Omnibus rules).
So, Congress has declared it wants to end California’s progress in protecting its own residents. Despite the massive improvement in health and air quality, and reduction in health costs as a result, republicans in Congress are once again making it clear that they favor poisoning Americans, so much so that they’ll even try illegal actions to do it.
The problem with using the Congressional Review Act in this situation is that it is doubly illegal to do. The CRA gives Congress the authority to roll back government agency actions, like those of the EPA, but it has been rarely used since its passing, since doing so results in a dysfunctional government and an unpredictable business environment.
But the CRA has a time limit, and Congress must act to reverse these rules within 60 days. The EPA approved California’s waiver on December 18, 2024, which is more than 60 days ago; therefore, the CRA does not apply.
Further, even if it were within 60 days, the CRA can’t be used to reject California’s waiver, because it isn’t a “rule.” The CRA only allows Congress to change “rules,” and the waiver isn’t a rule itself; it’s just EPA telling California that it can set its own rules. Both the Senate Parliamentarian and the Government Accountability Office (the real government office that holds government to account, unlike Elon Musk’s fake and redundant “Department of Government Efficiency” advisory board), along with many others have recognized that this is the case, and Congress knows it. But hey, at least they have the oil companies on their side.
So, Congress’ action today is illegal, and doubly so. It knows that this vote has no legal backing – but it still took the vote anyway, impotently screaming from the rafters “WE WANT TO KILL YOU!!!”… which apparently some people still need to hear.
For its part, the California Air Resources Board, the organization responsible for California’s regulations, said “CARB will continue its mission to protect the public health of Californians impacted by harmful air pollution.” So, we hope that CARB will continue to act within the law, and ignore Congress’ ridiculous protest.
Meanwhile, doctors, nurses, scientists, environmental groups, many businesses, people who recognize that they have lungs which they would like to continue using, and so on, generally support the strongest regulation possible. This week, more than 100 clean air groups sent a letter supporting the waiver. But who listens to those idiots anyway?
That hasn’t stopped other bad actors from stepping in to show support. The auto lobbyist that represents virtually every car company, which calls itself the “Alliance for Automotive Innovation” despite routinely opposing electrification efforts, came out in favor of ending California’s clean air rules. This is despite the weasel who runs the organization, John Bozzella, appearing on stage to give a speech when the EPA implemented rules with similar goals on a national level.
Bozzella has long stated that he thinks California and the EPA should have the same set of rules – but his organization is the one that originally lobbied Mr. Trump, during his first period squatting in the White House, to shatter the single national standard that had been set up under President Obama, opening this Pandora’s Box to begin with. And in case you need a reminder, California ended up winning that fight, which somebody predicted well ahead of time.
And don’t forget: the Alliance Against Automotive Innovation’s opposition to EVs will signal the nail in the coffin for the US auto industry. China is getting great at building EVs, to the point that other nations are desperately trying to put up barriers to stop them. But it hasn’t worked, and it won’t work. The only thing that will work is getting more serious about EVs, and trying to stop them ain’t it.
And, of course, the oil industry, responsible for untold death and destruction, has also arranged itself on the side of poisoning Americans, alongside republicans in Congress. What a surprise.
We, at least, know what side we’re on.
Update: Republicans have passed the second round of votes today, and have now illegally tried to end all three of California’s regulations they were targeting.
They were joined by some Democrats in each respective vote, including two California Democrats, Whitesides and Correa, both of whom represent areas around LA with high levels of pollution (both of these traitors need to be removed from their posts in the next primary election and feel free to click those links to give them a piece of your mind).
Only one republican, Fitzpatrick of PA, had the good sense to vote against two of these illegal and violent moves (though he voted for the third, and the one that will cause the most pollution and increase people’s costs the most – trying to roll back ACC II). The bills will now go to the Senate, but even if they pass there, they are still illegal.
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Swift Current Energy’s 800-megawatt (MW) Double Black Diamond Solar is up and running about 30 miles west of Springfield. It’s now the largest operating solar farm east of the Mississippi, and it’s set to make a serious dent in emissions while delivering clean energy to major customers, including the City of Chicago.
Chicago is sourcing around 70% of the power for its municipal operations from Double Black Diamond. That includes big energy users like O’Hare and Midway airports. Other customers buying power from the solar farm include CVS Health, Loyola University Chicago, PPG, State Farm, TransUnion, and Cook County, all through the energy company Constellation NewEnergy.
This project has been a long time coming – Swift Current started development in 2018 and leaned into a growing US supply chain. The company sourced most of its 1.6 million solar panels from First Solar’s Ohio factories, and the racking came from Nextracker, which used US-made steel and did some of the manufacturing in Chicago. Construction created around 500 jobs.
Double Black Diamond also met Illinois’ Clean and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) standards for labor and hiring, creating job opportunities for a broader group of workers. Over its lifetime, the solar farm is expected to generate $100 million in local tax revenue for Sangamon and Morgan counties. About 60% of that will go toward public schools, with the rest helping fund public safety, infrastructure, and community programs. Swift Current is also putting $10 million into community benefit programs, including school districts and local governments.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called the project “a powerful example of why we believe in the green economy.” He said the solar farm helps Chicago cut emissions, supports good union jobs, and lowers energy costs for city operations.
Read more: Home solar prices just hit record lows – and storage is even cheaper
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Range Energy, a company which builds large-battery electric trailers to help fleets electrify at the drop of a hat, has announced partnerships with Thermo King and ESL Power Systems to bring its technology to refrigerated trailer units.
The idea behind Range’s product is that it adds a battery and an electric motor e-axle to a semi truck trailer, instead of to the tractor itself, which means that a fleet can add electric capabilities without having to buy new tractors. This means the fleet can effectively hybridize its operation without having to buy new tractors.
While this isn’t a fully electric solution, it can still reduce fuel usage by a large amount (independent tests say 36%), and adds new capabilities to a truck – like better control over the trailer and regenerative braking to avoid brake fade.
We met Range at ACT Expo in Anaheim two years ago, where they gave us one of the coolest demos we’ve seen. Just by attaching to a tractor’s kingpin, the system can decide how much power to apply and offers extremely natural feeling movement, making a heavy trailer feel light as a feather:
Range isn’t quite up to production yet, but they have done some trials. In addition to the independent testing above, Range trialed its technology with Petaluma Egg Farm, up in Northern California, where it says the company saw a 50-70% improvement in MPG for the trucks using Range’s electric trailer.
But the company is still working to find novel applications for its technology, and when we caught up with them at ACT Expo this week, they wanted to focus on how Range trailers could be used for refrigerated freight in order to cut emissions and reduce the need for a separate engine to run the reefer unit.
In service of this, it has partnered with two companies in the refrigeration space – Thermo King, the biggest name in electrified trucks, and ESL Power Systems, a company that manufactures shore power solutions for heavy industry.
Range said Thermo King came to them because they’re the only company with enough energy storage to be able to run a refrigerated unit for an extended period of time. While there are other companies doing electrified refrigerated trailers, Range’s trailer has a much larger 288kWh battery (since it also works as a traction battery for the trailer’s electric motor).
This means it has a lot more energy on board to run a refrigeration unit, which can draw ~5-20kW depending on several factors. Range told us that fleets have told them this would be enough energy to keep the trailer box cold for a full day while unplugged from shore power, even in hot temperatures.
And that’s a big deal, because heretofore, refrigerated units have mostly run with an additional small diesel engine. Removing that engine means less pollution, less diesel usage, more noise, less maintenance, and it also means the refrigerated unit could operate in more environments (for example, you don’t want a running engine indoors if you can avoid it – but an electric unit doesn’t have to deal with that).
Speaking of shore power, that’s what Range is working with ESL to implement. ESL creates small, modular shore power systems which are easier to install, helping fleets save on infrastructure upgrade costs. Their boxes can deliver high-powered 480V 3-phase AC charging.
Plugging into one of these would allow the Range Energy trailer to charge at up to 50kW or so, meaning a 5-6 hour charge time for the 288kWh battery.
Range has already trialed its partnership with Thermo King, in the Petaluma Egg Farm example given above. Although the ESL partnership is newer, and those will be trialed soon.
Range is targeting the end of this year, or possibly the start of next year, for its first customer deliveries.
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Environment
Podcast: Elon is still CEO of Tesla, BYD EV sales surges while Tesla’s collapse, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Elon being challenged in his role as CEO of Tesla, BYD EV sales surging while Tesla’s collapse, and more.
Today’s episode is brought to you by retrospec—makers of sleek, powerful e-bikes and outdoor gear built for everyday adventure. Electrek listeners can get 10% off their next ride until May 8th with the exclusive code ELECTREK10 only at retrospec.com.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET):
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