California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) has proposed emergency amendments to its vehicle emissions regulations stemming from its battle with the Federal government over its low-NOx Omnibus and Advanced Clean Cars II rules.
The state believes Congress and President Donald J. Trump’s actions earlier this year to revoke the previously granted EPA waivers for the regulations were illegal, and intends to use these new proposed amendments to clarify and preserve its authority to enforce its own regulations. CARB states the emergency amendments are vital to provide clarification for OEMs seeking to sell new equipment in California and, if approved, would reinstate the regulations that were in place before the Omnibus and Advanced Clean Cars II rules.
“The congressional resolutions have introduced an unprecedented degree of uncertainty into the California market for new motor vehicles,” CARB wrote. “Specifically, the resolutions purported to invalidate preemption waivers authorizing enforcement of more recently adopted (and more stringent) vehicle emission standards, which themselves had displaced earlier-adopted regulations (applicable to all future model years), for which preemption had also been waived. That has left questions about which regulations apply.”
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The state agency continues, “There is therefore an emergency need to clarify the law to confirm that, at a minimum, CARB’s earlier-adopted standards, which have extant federal preemption waivers not subject to the recent congressional resolutions, are operative.”
California first set its own heavy-duty exhaust regulations in 1969, and was given authority to further set its own emission regulations under the Clean Air Act in 1970.
“The goal of the Emergency Vehicle Emissions Regulations is to clarify and ensure that new motor vehicles can be sold in California despite the unprecedented uncertainty introduced by the federal government into CARB’s longstanding regulatory program. These amendments will ensure that new vehicles and engines sold in California will, at a minimum, meet the emission standards and requirements for which U.S. EPA has granted a waiver that was not targeted by the congressional resolutions,” CARB states.
