by WorldTribune Staff, May 23, 2025 Real World News

In the waning days of the Biden-Harris regime, the autopen was in overdrive in an effort to push through as much climate change legislation as possible.

In December, in one of its final acts, the Biden team issued a waiver for California which green-lighted rules in which automakers would be forced to ensure electric vehicles (EVs) are a certain share of total new vehicle sales. That percentage would incrementally increase every year until 2035, when a complete EV mandate and ban on the sale of new gas cars would take effect.

The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday approved a resolution that revokes California’s federal waiver allowing it and several other Democrat-led states to mandate electric vehicle sales, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

The resolution, introduced by West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito in April, passed in a 51-44 vote. One Democrat, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, voted in favor of the resolution alongside every Republican who voted. Five lawmakers were absent from the vote.

“The impact of California’s waiver would have been felt across the country, harming multiple sectors of our economy and costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process,” said Capito, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The Senate’s action is seen as a huge loss for California and climate alarmists and a huge win for President Donald Trump.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump said the “crazed concept of ‘all Electric Cars’” would devastate auto workers and decimate Michigan’s auto industry.

Trump is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming weeks. The House passed the resolution in a 246-164 vote, with 35 Democrats voting in tandem with all 211 voting Republicans.

“The fact is these EV sales mandates were never achievable,” John Bozzella, the president and CEO of auto industry group the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a statement Thursday. “Automakers warned federal and state policymakers that reaching these EV sales targets would take a miracle, especially in the coming years when the mandates get exponentially tougher.”

“There’s a significant gap between the marketplace and these EV sales requirements,” he continued.

According to the most recent data compiled by Bozzella’s group, about 8.1 percent of total new car sales in the U.S. were battery electric last year, a 0.5 percent year-over-year increase. California’s law would have forced automakers in the state and the 11 other participating states to ensure 35 percent of all model year 2026 vehicles sold are electric.

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  Senate overturns Team Biden’s EV mandate for California, WorldTribune.com