US judge blocks EPA effort to repeal California emission waivers

5 September 2026

A US federal judge temporarily blocked a Trump administration effort to overturn through a congressional action four waivers issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that enabled certain California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) emission regulations for light-duty vehicles and small off-road engines.

Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of former President Obama, blocked the EPA from sending the waivers to Congress for a review and potential reversal.

In June, the EPA transmitted four “waiver rules” for congressional review under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The waivers allowed CARB to implement the Advanced Clean Cars I (ACC I) regulation (including CARB LEV III standards), GHG Emission Standards for 2009 and later model year light-duty vehicles, and the Small Offroad Engine (SORE) Amendments that have resulted in the push towards electrification for lawn and garden equipment.

The EPA classified these waivers as regulations in an effort to let Congress overturn them using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA allows only regulations (or rules) to be repealed, with simple majority votes and presidential approval. However, there is a legal uncertainty whether EPA emission waivers qualify as “rules” or “regulations” that can be overturned under CRA.

“The central problem for EPA is that the waivers themselves explicitly state that they are not rules, while the CRA limits invocation of this statute only to agency rules of general applicability, which EPA, in its own words, has emphatically stated Clean Air Act waiver orders are not,” Howell wrote in her ruling.

In her ruling, Howell said that California is likely to ultimately succeed on the merits of the case, and she ordered a return to the status quo prior to the EPA’s June action. In an unsigned statement quoted by The Hill, the EPA said it is “considering immediate appeal options.”

Source: California Attorney General | The Hill | Reuters