President Joe Biden's outgoing administration has granted California's special Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exemptions from higher emissions standards for lawn mowers, leaf blowers, refrigerated trucks and off-road vehicles. [emphasis, links added]
Politico Friday's report:
The moves are President Joe Biden's last-ditch attempt to protect California's progressive climate policies from President-elect Donald Trump, who took office more than two weeks ago and pledged to repeal the state's regulations.
The EPA approved the exemptions, which give California the power under the Clean Air Act to set stricter emissions regulations than federal ones, giving the state's nationally-led rules an extra layer of protection from Trump and his allies. infringement. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged Friday that the Republican-led House will prioritize ending electric vehicle policies and other Democratic climate efforts.
For more than a year, California officials have called on Biden's EPA to waive eight of its rules. Friday's decision follows two other exemptions issued by the EPA in December covering the state's car and truck exhaust pollution rules.
California’s tighter rules on emissions, such as those on eggs and pork, have the potential to impact the entire U.S. marketgiven the size of California’s population (nearly 40 million people) and its market.
The American Trucking Associations criticized a waiver issued last month by the Biden-led EPA that would have allowed California to impose stricter emissions standards on trucks, adding:
“This ill-advised exemption will be short-lived. We look forward to incoming EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin reversing these misguided policies and restoring common sense to the nation's environmental policy.
There are also concerns that tighter regulations on trucks could cause truckers to avoid California altogether, resulting in fewer trucks picking up cargo at the California ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.is the busiest in the country, which could lead to a new freight crisis like the one in 2021.
Read more at Breitbart News
