As the nation prepares for the exchange of power from the Biden Administration to the Trump Administration, California gears up to have some things shut down. California leaders have been actively working on several projects to clean up the California air, with several of them relating to the manufacturing and sales of certain vehicle types. Recently, one such action plan drawn up by the California Air Resources Board, or CARB for short, was approved by the federal agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA for short. This action plan laid out guides to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. While this plan received federal approval, others have been awaiting federal ruling.

President-elect Trump has already stated his plans to combat all of California’s measures, so some of the plans in limbo have been scrapped.

Along with the ban of new gas-powered vehicles, California wanted to ban diesel trucks, one of the producers of some of the worst bouts of air pollution. However, this ban was awaiting waiver approval from the EPA. Knowing that with Trump soon to take office and these bans being some of his first targets to shut down, California withdrew their waiver requests from the EPA. With this, they withdrew four different diesel standards they were hoping to implement into California state law.

By withdrawing the unapproved requests, state leaders are hoping that the incoming administration does not attempt to fight against the already approved plans.

The Air Resources Board Chair, Liane Randolph, explained in a statement that they are disappointed that the EPA simply had not made an official ruling on these waivers yet. Despite this disappointment, they made the tough decision to withdraw the requests knowing that they would be quickly denied under Trump’s leadership. As is, the already approved bills are at risk of being overturned as the soon-to-be Trump led EPA will be able to hold a redetermination on their previous rulings.

The plans that were withdrawn had previously received state approval in 2022.

The bans and new standards were created after years of careful research, analysis, hearings, and more. The removal of most diesel vehicles from the state’s roads would lead to significantly cleaner air. The removal would be applied to vehicles such as locomotives, commercial harbor craft, and refrigeration unit engines. For trains, this would have meant that only locomotives that were less than 23 years old could operate in the state come 2030, unless they proved to be zero emissions. However, this is one of the bills that has been forgone by withdrawing their stagnant waiver requests.

It is unknown at this time what will happen with the climate combatting laws that are being implemented by California. President-elect Trump has stated that he plans to fight several of the laws, but only time will tell if he actually does. As for the withdrawn waivers, it is also unknown whether or not California will ever resubmit them as requests to the EPA.