Trump DOJ Sues California Over ‘Backdoor’ Electric Vehicle Mandate

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against California, arguing that the state is illegally imposing a de facto electric vehicle mandate through strict emissions and fuel economy rules.

The Department of Justice filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, claiming California’s policies force automakers to comply with state specific mileage standards that violate federal law.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the legal challenge is aimed at preventing policies that increase costs for American consumers.

“California is using unlawful policies from the last administration to create exorbitant costs for their citizens,” Bondi said. “This Department of Justice is proud to stand with President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to bring litigation that will make life more affordable for American consumers.”

At the center of the dispute is California’s Advanced Clean Cars program, which requires an increasing share of new vehicles sold in the state to be zero emission.

The rule, adopted by the California Air Resources Board in 2022 under Governor Gavin Newsom, mandates that all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the state must be zero emission vehicles by 2035.

The Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency previously granted California a waiver allowing the state to enforce the regulation.

Federal officials now argue that the policy effectively forces automakers to redesign vehicles to meet California’s standards, creating what they call a patchwork of fuel economy regulations across different states.

Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, individual states are generally prohibited from setting their own fuel economy standards.

However, California has historically received special exemptions that allowed it to adopt stricter environmental regulations than the federal government.

California’s vehicle emissions rules have often served as a model for other states. More than a dozen states have adopted similar standards that go beyond federal pollution limits.

Newsom’s policies expanded earlier efforts introduced under former Governor Jerry Brown through the Advanced Clean Cars program covering model years 2015 through 2025.

Those regulations aimed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new passenger vehicles by 34 percent by 2025 and lower overall greenhouse gas emissions by 27 percent by 2035.

In June, President Trump signed legislation using the Congressional Review Act to revoke California’s newer emissions mandates.

The validity of that move is now being challenged in court.

While the newer mandates were repealed, the earlier Advanced Clean Cars standards remain in place. The Trump administration argues those rules still function as an indirect electric vehicle requirement.

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said the lawsuit is intended to restore a single national standard for fuel economy rules.

“This litigation will help automakers design and produce cars and trucks to meet one federal fuel economy regulation,” Morrison said.

He also argued that allowing California to impose its own policies created an expensive regulatory patchwork across the country.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized Newsom’s response to the federal action.

“I was proud to stand alongside President Trump to unveil our plan to eliminate the Biden Buttigieg EV mandate and allow auto manufacturers to produce cars American families actually want to buy at a more affordable price,” Duffy said.

“But Gavin Newsom is determined to continue pushing Democrats’ radical EV agenda even if doing so is illegal,” he added.

After Trump revoked the mandates, Newsom issued an executive order directing the California Air Resources Board to begin developing a new Advanced Clean Cars III program.

The order also instructed regulators to offer incentives to automakers that continue complying with California’s stricter emissions standards.

The dispute has now created two major legal battles.

One case in the Ninth Circuit challenges Trump’s revocation of the emissions mandates through the Congressional Review Act.

The second case, filed by the Justice Department, seeks to block California from enforcing the remaining emissions rules that federal officials say effectively function as an electric vehicle mandate.