Overview
- California filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington on Monday challenging the EPA’s June decision to treat four Clean Air Act waivers as “rules” and to send them to Congress for review under the Congressional Review Act.
- The four contested waivers cover CARB’s 2008 greenhouse‑gas car standards, the 2012 Advanced Clean Cars I rule, parts of ACC I reinstated in 2022, and 2022 amendments to Small Off‑Road Engine (SORE) rules that govern lawn and garden equipment.
- The complaint argues the EPA acted unlawfully under the Administrative Procedure Act and beyond its authority (ultra vires), and asks the court to vacate the reclassification, restore the prior status quo, and block further submissions to Congress.
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said the agency is fulfilling a statutory duty by submitting the waivers to Congress, a move that follows prior CRA use in 2025 to disapprove California’s electric‑vehicle mandate.
- California warns the reclassification could raise pollution and health risks for overburdened communities, create regulatory uncertainty for automakers and other states that follow California rules, and upend a five‑decade practice in which waivers were treated as agency orders rather than reviewable rules.