Gavin Newsom has been collecting money from 49 states that never gave him a single vote.
Washington had no idea it was happening – and there's a reason for that.
And Representative Vince Fong just moved to end it – and the Biden document that made it all possible was never supposed to reach Congress.
The Biden EPA Waiver That Turned California Port Fees Into a National Grocery Tax
California's ports handle more than 40% of all containers entering the United States.
Every cargo ship, tanker, and container vessel docked there faces a choice under Newsom's Vessel At Berth regulation: shut down diesel engines, plug into California's electrical grid, or pay fees of up to $14,704 per hour into a state fund.
Ships that refuse entirely face noncompliance fines reaching $50,288 per violation per day.
Most ports don't have the shore power infrastructure to handle full compliance – so shipping companies pay penalties because California wrote rules its own ports can't meet.
Retrofitting a single vessel to meet California's demands costs between $268,000 and $2 million.
"It's a massive hidden climate tax that's being imposed on every single ship that's coming into California," Rep. Vince Fong told Fox News Digital. "And so all of those costs now are getting passed on to consumers."
A grocery chain restocking shelves in Georgia or a family in Ohio opening an Amazon package – that shipment moved through California.
Every state in the country is on the hook, whether they know it or not.
The rule covers cargo ships, tankers, auto carriers, and cruise vessels.
Auto carriers and tankers alone account for 56% of diesel emissions from ships at California ports – so CARB expanded coverage to include them next.
The regulation's projected cost: $2.23 billion.
Vince Fong's Congressional Review Act Bill and the Supply Chain Stakes for All 50 States
Shipping companies haven't been absorbing these costs quietly.
"You have shipping companies that have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties, if you aggregate it all," Fong said. "And as this goes on, this could ripple throughout the United States."
In 2023, Biden's EPA granted California a waiver to enforce the rule under the Clean Air Act – and never submitted it to Congress for review.
America's elected lawmakers never got a say in a regulation now touching 16.8% of U.S. trade.
Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin moved to correct that in July 2026, formally transmitting the waiver to Congress as a rule subject to legislative review.
"This is what the law requires, and it is our obligation to the American people to follow the best reading of the law every single time," Zeldin said.
Fong introduced H.J.Res.210 on August 6, invoking the Congressional Review Act to force a disapproval vote and strip the Biden-era waiver that gives California its national leverage.
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska introduced a Senate companion resolution, telling Fox News Digital that families in his state "pay the price" when California imposes new mandates.
In 2025, a bipartisan majority in Congress used the same Congressional Review Act to cancel three California electric vehicle waivers Biden approved the same way – bypassing Congress entirely.
One unelected California agency wrote national shipping policy.
Forty-nine states had no say.
Biden made sure of it.
"You have other states now that are looking at California and say, well, if they're gonna do it, we might do it too," Fong said. "So this could grow exponentially."
Seventeen states are already fighting California's packaging law on the same theory – that Sacramento gets to write the rules the rest of America lives by.
Trump moved first. Fong's bill is the kill shot.
Congress needs to move – because the price on every grocery receipt in America already has California's signature on it.
Sources:
- Elizabeth Elkind, "Gavin Newsom's 'hidden climate tax' hitting Americans nationwide, lawmaker warns," Fox News, August 10, 2026.
- Ben Smith, "Trump Administration Moves to Sink Newsom's Costly Port Climate Mandates," RedState, July 22, 2026.
- Tosin Akintola, "California Makes Everyone Else Pay for Its Climate Goals With $2.2 Billion Port Rule," Townhall, July 18, 2026.
- H.J.Res.210, 119th Congress, Congress.gov, introduced August 6, 2026.