Time For The CRA To Pull The Rug Out From Under Newsom’s Nonsense

Newsom signed an executive order instructing state agencies to bypass congressional action

Sometimes, madness isn’t funny, especially when a state makes decisions about national energy policy that impacts 330 million people who never voted for it.

This delusional nightmare started with a series of federal waivers granted under Biden. Now, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) writes energy and shipping rules that affect every American at the checkout counter, no matter what state they live in.

California ports handle almost 40 percent of everything America imports. When

CARB requires cargo ships docked at those ports to shut down their diesel engines and connect to California's power grid or face fines approaching $50,000 per day. Shipping companies pass those costs on to consumers.

Shipping companies are not slow; they build those charges into the freight rates, which in turn drives up wholesale prices, and Americans pay the difference at checkout.

CARB estimates the total cost of its At-Berth shipping regulation to be $2.23 billion by 2032, and get this, they think the cost is “reasonable.”

I guess reasonable depends on which side of the register you’re on.

In June 2025, Trump signed three resolutions under the Congressional Review Act that nullified the Biden-era waivers granting authority to CARB's truck and vehicle mandates.

The CRA is Congress's most powerful tool; it nullifies rules as if they never existed and prevents the same agency from reinstating similar rules without Congressional approval. California chose to ignore the situation.

Newsom signed an executive order instructing state agencies to bypass congressional action. Consequently, CARB continued to enforce rules that had been invalidated.

The DOJ had to file a lawsuit in August 2025 to enforce compliance. Consider this: a state agency openly defying federal law in writing.

The DOJ stated:

"President Donald Trump and Congress have invalidated the Clean Air Act waivers. CARB must respect the democratic process and stop enforcing unlawful standards."

As usual, California dreaming is a nightmare for the rest of the country

California's lawsuit against the 2025 CRA resolutions is progressing in federal court, and CARB has exploited this uncertainty to continue imposing penalties.

On June 12, 2026, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin sent four additional waivers from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to Congress for review under the Congressional Review Act.

These waivers address greenhouse gas emission standards established in 2009, mandates for zero-emission vehicles, and regulations for small off-road engines. Notably, no previous administration has ever submitted such waivers to Congress.

Zeldin emphasized, "The EPA is accountable to Congress, but, most importantly, we must be accountable to the American people."

California has collected tens of millions of dollars in penalties from shipping companies that lack the technology needed to comply with the At-Berth regulation. Every dollar of these penalties contributes to increased freight rates for transporting goods to states that have not implemented this rule.

Similarly, the mandates for drayage trucks impose an unrealistic timeline on truckers, requiring zero-emission vehicles without the necessary infrastructure in place. As a result, the associated costs affect the entire supply chain.

Californians often feel a sense of moral superiority about environmental policies, but the costs are typically borne by everyone else.

For the past two decades, California has consistently followed the same strategy.

In 2009, the Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the California Air Resources Board (CARB) a waiver regarding greenhouse gas emissions. This waiver became the regulatory foundation for numerous vehicle mandates that followed, and it wasn't until the Trump administration's EPA addressed it this month that Congress had an opportunity to review it.

For sixteen years, this unchecked expansion was based on a waiver that Congress never had the chance to examine

Zeldin's transmittal on June 12 aims to dismantle not just the overreach introduced during Biden's administration, but also the entire framework that Sacramento built upon, a rule that Congress was never asked to approve.

As usual, California dreaming is a nightmare for the rest of the country.