JUNE 13, 2025 |
Photo – Drawing of an electric car – Bigfoot99 file photo
In Washington, D.C., U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, attended the White House signing ceremony Thursday where President Donald Trump signed legislation repealing the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate.
Audio PlayerThe legislation to repeal the EV mandate passed the Senate last month with the support of all Republican Senators.
The U.S. Senate voted last month to block California’s landmark mandate phasing out gas-powered cars, dealing a substantial blow to the state’s aggressive transition to electric vehicles.
The vote was largely along party lines with 51 voting to rescind the mandate wavier, while 44 voted against it.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, called California’s zero-emission standards for both cars and diesel trucks extreme and a threat to the economy. Capito said the California mandates “replace the will of consumer with the will of the government.”
Senator Barrasso, in a statement following yesterday’s formal signing of the legislation, said, “The goal of radical climate extremists was to ban gas-powered vehicles forever. This Republican majority stopped them. Wyoming families do not need or want Washington bureaucrats to pick the car or truck they are able to drive.”
Last month’s action in the Senate to defeat the legislation followed a vote on April 30th that shocked environmentalists when 35 Democrats joined Republicans to block California’s electric car mandate.
The battle could now move to the courts in a legal battle between California and the Trump administration. State leaders, including Governor Gavin Newsome and Attorney General Rob Bonta held an angry news briefing last month saying they will file a lawsuit.
“We’re going to fight this unconstitutional attack on California in court,” Newsom said in a statement.
