Under Trump, California’s clean car rules are essential — and vulnerable

The Trump administration finalized a plan easing federal fuel-efficiency requirements, a largely symbolic move since Congress had already stripped penalties for violating them, leaving the federal government with essentially no binding policy on car emissions, which account for roughly 16 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. California's own emissions standards, protected by a decades-old Clean Air Act exemption, remain the strongest policy left standing, and 19 other states plus Washington, D.C. have adopted them.

Congress already voted last year to block California's plan to phase out gas-powered cars by 2035, after Trump's EPA requested it, despite the Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian both calling the maneuver illegal. California sued in response, and a federal judge in September blocked a separate effort to overturn California's older, already-in-place standards.

Automakers have stayed largely quiet on compliance plans amid the legal whiplash, while consumer trends like rising hybrid sales suggest market forces may do some of the work federal policy no longer will.

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