US EPA approves California sale ban on new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 News
Christian Mehlführer, User:Chmehl, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
US EPA approves California sale ban on new gasoline-powered cars by 2035

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted waiver requests from California on Wednesday that allow the state to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. California requested the waivers for its Advanced Clean Cars II Rule and Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation.

Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act requires EPA to develop applicant standard to the emission of air pollutants from new motor vehicles and its engines which may endanger public health.

California requested the waivers under the Clean Air Act. Section 7543(b) allows states to request a waiver to enforce their own emissions standards, normally prohibited under section 7543(a). To be granted a waiver, a state must show the proposed emissions standard is “at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable Federal standards,” is not arbitrary and capricious, is necessitated by extraordinary conditions and does not conflict with other procedures of the Act.

In the full Notice of Decision, the agency cited evidence provided by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that new standards will “reduce smog and soot-causing pollutants–including fine particulate matter,” leading to a reduction of “costly and harmful health impacts such as increased illnesses, asthma attacks, lost days of work or school, and hospitalizations.”

Despite opposing parties claiming the new standards are inconsistent with section 202(a), EPA decided that the new standards are technologically feasible, is consistent with Federal requirement and the section 202(a) standard.

EPA also found the new standards to be necessitated by extraordinary conditions. A map produced by the agency shows large portions of California classified as “extreme” poor air quality.

Approval of the waivers affects California and over a dozen states that adopted the same standards. However, the incoming Trump Administration may revoke the waivers as they did in 2019. Additionally, large truck manufacturers complying with the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation face a antitrust lawsuit filed by Nebraska in November.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.