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California leaders said the state intends to challenge the move in court, and to find new ways to move drivers toward electric vehicles.
June 12, 2025Updated 12:37 p.m. ET
President Trump signed joint resolutions of Congress on Thursday that block California’s effort to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles, his latest attempt to reduce the power of the nation’s most populous state.
The Republican-led Congress passed the resolutions in May to reverse the Biden administration’s approval of California’s electric vehicle efforts. When signed by the president, joint resolutions revoking federal rules carry the force of law and are not subject to judicial review.
Even so, the move is expected to draw an immediate legal challenge from California, as well as an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom directing state officials to find another path that would move the state’s drivers toward electric vehicles and encourage companies to make them.
Mr. Trump signed the resolutions at a time when he was battling California on several fronts, most notably in a dispute over immigration enforcement, in which the president has sent National Guard and Marine troops to Southern California in an extraordinary use of military force.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump took aim at California’s longstanding authority under the federal Clean Air Act of 1970 to set pollution standards for the state that are more strict than federal limits, and at Governor Newsom’s ambition to fight climate change with an aggressive transition to electric vehicles. Repealing California’s automobile policy is central to Mr. Trump’s agenda of bolstering the production and use of fossil fuels in the United States, while eliminating policies that promote renewable energy and reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Trump’s action reversed a Biden administration decision that allowed the state to require that electric vehicles make up a progressively larger share of new vehicles sold in California until 2035, when the state would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars entirely.
