Appeals court clears the way for California to set its own zero emission standards

A federal appellate court on Tuesday upheld the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant California a waiver allowing it to establish its own zero emission standards for tailpipes as well as electric vehicle requirements.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a legal challenge to California's standards that was brought by a group of 17 Republican-led states and entities that sell or produce liquid fuels.

In 2022, the Biden administration's EPA restored California's ability to establish its own zero-emission vehicle sales mandate and tailpipe emissions limits through 2025 — a move that reversed a 2019 decision by the Trump administration.

Republicans opposed to the rule argued that the waiver for California gave it an unconstitutional regulatory power that was denied to other states. The court held that the EPA is required by the Clean Air Act to uphold California's emissions standards as long as they're at least as stringent as federal rules.

«In other words, the federal regulations continue to act as the floor for emissions regulations, but California can seek to enact its own more stringent regulatory program above those federal requirements,» the three judge panel wrote in their unanimous opinion.

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The court said the reversal of the EPA decision would address the states' claims if automakers responded by selling fewer EVs or lowering prices of gas-powered models and wrote that there was no evidence to support that conclusion.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said the «court sided with common sense and public health against the fossil fuel industry and Republican-led states. This ruling reaffirms California's longstanding right to address pollution from cars and trucks.»

The Ohio attorney general's office, which argued on behalf of the Republican-led states, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

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California received a waiver from the EPA in 1993 for its first zero-emission