Last month we blogged about how the waiver that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA” issued to allow California to impose its own emission standards on cars and light-duty trucks had been referred to Congress for (presumably) disapproval under the Congressional Review Act.
Congress’s disapproval of the waiver would have precluded California from imposing standards different than EPA’s own nationwide standards and also precluded a waiver from being issued for any substantially similar California standards in the future.
We say “would have” because it appears that Congress failed to take a vote on the waiver before the March 7 deadline prescribed by the Congressional Review Act.
That means that it appears that the California standards (which Pennsylvania has adopted in part) will stand, if only for the time being – EPA just announced that it intends to revisit, and presumably gut, its own emission standards for model year 2027 cars and light-duty trucks.
We’ll continue to follow this as it develops and keep you posted.