It’s back to the future for California’s EV mandate

With help from Camille von Kaenel, Noah Baustin, Nico Portuondo and Mike Lee

California is fending off another Trump attack on EV rules. | Rich Pedroncelli, File/AP

PAST IS PRESENT: California is looking to the past for a path forward after the Trump administration axed its electric vehicle sales mandates. A decade-old rule could hold the key to the state’s regulatory future.

State air quality officials will start next week putting together new rules for heavy-duty truck emissions regulations. The deliberations come after the state announced plans to finalize standards for light-duty car manufacturers by summer 2027 — collectively representing their counter-move after Republicans used the Congressional Review Act to nullify California’s plan to ban gas vehicles over the next decade.

Those forthcoming rules will signal how aggressively the state plans to push the automotive industry to phase out gas-powered vehicles. But they could be rendered moot if the California Air Resources Board loses a simmering regulatory fight over its bid to reinstate 2012 emissions standards as a stopgap measure.

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