The following is a report from the Associated Press.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure Thursday that blocks California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, a White House official told The Associated Press.
The resolution Trump plans to sign, which Congress approved last month, aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. He also plans to approve measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
The timing of the signing was confirmed Wednesday by a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to share plans not yet public.
The development comes as the Republican president is mired in a clash with California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, over Trump’s move to deploy troopsto Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. It’s the latest in an ongoing battle between the Trump administration and heavily Democratic California over everything from tariffs to the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and funding for electric vehicle chargers.
“If it’s a day ending in Y, it’s another day of Trump’s war on California,” Newsom spokesperson Daniel Villaseñor said in an email. “We’re fighting back.”
According to the White House official, Trump is expected to sign resolutions that block California’s rule phasing out gas-powered cars and ending the sale of new ones by 2035. He will also kill rules that phase out the sale of medium- and heavy-duty diesel vehicles and cut tailpipe emissions from trucks.
The president is scheduled to sign the measures and make remarks during an event at the White House on Thursday morning.
Newsom, who is considered a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, and California officials contend that what the federal government is doing is illegal and said the state plans to sue.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin are expected to attend, along with members of Congress and representatives from the energy, trucking and gas station industries.
The signings come as Trump has pledged to revive American auto manufacturing and boost oil and gas drilling.
The move will also come a day after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed repealing rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Zeldin said it would remove billions of dollars in costs for industry and help “unleash” American energy.
California, which has some of the nation’s worst air pollution, has been able to seek waivers for decades from the EPA, allowing it to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
In his first term, Trump revoked California’s ability to enforce its standards, but President Joe Biden reinstated it in 2022. Trump has not yet sought to revoke it again.
Republicans have long criticized those waivers and earlier this year opted to use the Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving congressional oversight of actions by federal agencies, to try to block the rules.
