Gavin Newsom spent years turning California into a laboratory for radical green experiments the rest of America never voted for.
Now he's using that laboratory to redesign every car in your driveway.
Trump's Justice Department filed suit to stop him – and what they found buried in California's regulations explains why your next vehicle could cost you $1,000 more than it should.
How California's Gas Car Ban Took Over the Entire US Auto Industry
Under the Advanced Clean Cars II rule, California mandated that 35 percent of all new vehicles sold in the state must be zero-emission starting this year – climbing to 100 percent by 2035, a full ban on new gas-powered car sales.
California extended that power through Section 177 of the Clean Air Act, which lets other states copy whatever rules California writes.
Seventeen states signed on.
Together, California and its Section 177 states represent roughly 35 percent of all new vehicle sales in the United States.
That is one unelected California bureaucracy – the California Air Resources Board – setting production quotas for every major automaker in the country.
And here is what nobody explains clearly: automakers don't build one version of a car for California and a different version for the other 49 states.
That is not how manufacturing works.
Complying with California's mandate means retooling the national production line – not carving out one state's worth of inventory.
Every major manufacturer ends up building to California's standard whether Ohio, Texas, or Florida ever voted for it.
Ford cut EV production shifts at its Michigan plant when the numbers didn't work.
GM, Toyota, Stellantis – every legacy manufacturer faced fines of $20,000 per vehicle if they couldn't hit quotas that even California's own dealers said were impossible.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation called it an "unaccountable, unachievable regulatory wormhole."
Trump and Bondi Sue California Air Resources Board in Federal Court
Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy filed suit in the Eastern District of California, targeting the California Air Resources Board directly.
The legal argument is straightforward: the Energy Policy and Conservation Act gives the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exclusive authority over fuel economy standards.
States are prohibited from creating their own.
California has been doing exactly that for years – hiding fuel economy mandates inside emissions regulations and relying on Biden-era EPA waivers to keep the operation running.
Trump closed that door in June 2025, when Congress passed resolutions under the Congressional Review Act revoking California's waivers.
Newsom sued back, arguing the CRA can't be used against EPA waiver decisions.
That case is still in the courts.
Newsom then issued a new executive order directing California bureaucrats to write new zero-emission regulations – defying the federal revocation in real time.
Newsom knew exactly what he was doing – and did it anyway.
This lawsuit targets that defiance head-on.
"California is using unlawful policies from the last administration to create exorbitant costs for our citizens," Bondi said.
Duffy cut straight to it: "Gavin Newsom is determined to continue pushing Democrat's radical EV fantasy – even if doing so is illegal."
What This Fight Is Actually About
This is not a debate about clean air.
This is about whether one state's bureaucrats get to redesign American manufacturing policy without a single congressional vote.
Heritage Foundation researchers identified this problem years ago – when one state controls 35 percent of the national car market and 17 other states copy its rules, that state has federalized its preferences through the back door without anyone voting for it.
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison named it plainly in the filing: Obama and Biden created a "costly patchwork quilt of individual state fuel economy requirements" by letting California run its own shadow car economy.
Automakers unable to hit California's 35 percent ZEV quota for 2026 faced three choices: funnel electric vehicles into California while starving other states, buy expensive compliance credits from Tesla, or absorb $20,000-per-vehicle fines.
Every one of those options raises prices for consumers who never voted for a mandate.
Trump's "Freedom Means Affordable Cars" initiative – the policy anchor for this lawsuit – projects $109 billion in savings over five years and $1,000 off the average new vehicle price by eliminating this regulatory patchwork.
Newsom's office has not responded to requests for comment.
California already lost a parallel fight – a federal court blocked the "Clean Truck Partnership," and Bondi's team is applying that same template to passenger cars.
The legal framework is strong, the precedent is building, and Gavin Newsom is running out of places to hide.
If he wins, your next car costs more – not because the market demanded it, but because one California bureaucrat decided it should.
Sources:
- Department of Justice, "President Trump's Justice Department and Transportation Department Sue to Stop California's Illegal EV Mandate," Justice.gov, March 12, 2026.
- Heritage Foundation, "Congress Must Take California out of the Driver's Seat on Electric Car Mandates," Heritage.org.
- Alliance for Automotive Innovation, "California and States with EV Sales Requirements," AutosInnovate.org, December 2024.
- Department of Justice, "Justice Department Sues California to End Enforcement of Unlawful Emissions Standards for Trucks," Justice.gov, August 15, 2025.
- Georgetown Environmental Law Review, "California's Ban on Gasoline-Powered Vehicles – Will it Take Effect?," Georgetown Law.