California Can Once Again Set Its Own Rules For Car Emissions And Electric Vehicles

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has restored California's ability to set its own vehicle emission standards, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing an agency executive.

What Happened: The environment agency’s move revokes a 2019 decision brought in by then-President Donald Trump and will bring back a waiver under the Clean Air Act to California first awarded in 2013.

The move would reinstate the approach to “advance clean technologies and cut air pollution for people not just in California, but for the U.S. as a whole," EPA Administrator Michael Regan was quoted as saying in the report.

The Clean Air Act waiver allowed California to set emission standards tighter than those of the federal government and have been adopted by over a dozen U.S. states.

The agency is also rejecting Trump’s 2019 decision to prohibit other states from adopting the California tailpipe emission standards, as per the report.  

See Also: Tesla California Registrations Jump 58%, Model 3 Rides Out On Top

EV Adoption Step-Up: California has been at the forefront among all U.S. states towards EV adoption. 

The California Air Resources Board has already outlined plans to significantly increase EV requirements by 2030 as the state moves to phase out the sale of gasoline-powered, light-duty vehicles by 2035.

A proposal currently being reviewed by the state regulator aims to secure 68% new zero-emission vehicles in 2030, 76% in 2031 and 100% in 2035, the report cited a board spokesman as saying.

President Joe Biden had last year in August set a goal of having EVs make up half of the cars and trucks sold in the U.S. by 2030.

Tesla Inc TSLA tops the EV sales chart in California, the Elon Musk-led company's former headquarters before the billionaire entrepreneur shifted base to Austin, Texas.

A February report by the California New Car Dealers Association showed Tesla had a 6.5% market share in California that includes data of all vehicles including gas-powered, hybrids and EVs.

Price Action: Tesla stock closed 4.2% higher at $858.9 a share on Wednesday.