Trump needs to finish the job and cancel Californias green carveouts

One of the great accomplishments of the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 — after 40 years of Democrat rule — was empowering to Congress to rein in the deep state in Washington.Legislators did this by passing the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to review and overturn the mandates decreed by federal agencies.I was a strong supporter and co-sponsor of the CRA, because unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t be able to impose costs on the people without congressional oversight.I have been delighted to see President Trump aggressively using the CRA to roll back former President Joe Biden’s costly regulations, which have driven up costs for consumers. Trump has wisely identified Biden-era California waivers as eligible for review by Congress.The Environmental Protection Agency recently sent four California Clean Air Act waivers to Congress.This builds on previous exceptions flagged by the EPA in 2025, which led to Congress disapproving several of California’s special-status waivers.This matters because for decades, Americans everywhere have paid the bill for California’s extreme environmental agenda.

The state’s rules raise the price of cars, trucks, freight, energy and even lawn equipment — not only in the Golden State, but elsewhere as well.Much of California’s power to affect our lives comes through a quirk of federal law embedded in the Clean Air Act.The act bars states from setting their own emission standards for mobile sources, leaving that to national rules written by the EPA.But California gets an exception: It may ask the EPA for a “waiver” (or “authorization”) to impose stricter standards.

And companion provisions generally let other states adopt California’s tougher rules.For years, Democrat presidential administrations have given California the chance to impose ever-more-extreme rules through this waiver scheme, and then shielded California’s waivers from the congressional scrutiny they were due.From...