Trump campaign unleashes on Biden for backing California's gas car ban

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump's campaign is again criticizing President Biden's climate agenda, taking aim at his administration's electric vehicle (EV) policies.

In a fiery statement to Fox News Digital on Thursday, the Trump campaign blasted Biden's actions related to California's proposed EV mandate regulations, which would phase out all gas-powered car sales in the coming years. The statement comes amid a war of words on EV policy between Trump and both the Biden administration and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"Fresh off imposing his insane, job-killing electric vehicle mandate at the federal level, Crooked Joe Biden is preparing to slaughter the remnants of the U.S. auto-industry by approving California’s waiver request outlawing the sale of all gasoline-powered automobiles," Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to soon finalize a waiver requested by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to green-light a plan which would begin setting statewide EV sales requirements in 2026 and culminate in a complete ban on gas cars in 2035. The federal waiver has received opposition from automakers, car dealers, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and the energy industry.

Leavitt said Thursday that, if elected, on his first day in office, Trump would revoke both federal EV requirements and any waiver issued for California by the Biden administration.

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"Despite these cataclysmic consequences, Crooked Joe is preparing to formally approve this extremist, ultra-left-wing ban on gasoline cars in much of the United States," Leavitt said. "The Trump administration will stand for car affordability and maximum choice for American consumers."

In March 2022, the EPA reinstated California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to broadly implement its own emission standards and EV sales mandates, and allowed other states to adopt California's rules. That action came after the Trump administration revoked the state's authority to pursue standards that run counter to federal rules.

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Months later, on Aug. 25, 2022, CARB announced its Advanced Clean Cars II plan and, shortly thereafter, Newsom said California would continue to "lead the revolution towards our zero-emission transportation future." Then, in May 2023, the state submitted a waiver request with EPA, asking it to approve the plan, which more than a dozen other states have pledged to adopt.

The Advanced Clean Cars II plan would require that 35% of new car sales are zero-emission in 2026 and rapidly increase that requirement until 2035, when 100% of sales would be required to be zero-emissions. 

"The U.S. auto industry is undoubtedly transitioning to electric vehicles as evidenced by the massive investments automakers have committed to technology and their ongoing product announcements," the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry group that represents major automakers, wrote to the EPA last month. 

"And while California has long led the way in developing the EV market in that state, other states have not yet caught up. It is therefore important for policymakers to assess whether a ZEV regulation that is right for California is also right for other states."

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According to data compiled by the group, 24% of car sales last year were battery electric while another 4% were hybrid. However, in the last half of 2023, state EV sales saw a precipitous decline for the first time in more than a decade, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Meanwhile, Newsom recently blasted Trump for his comments on EVs, saying California was prepared to defend its climate agenda.

"Do I worry about the politicization of this? Of course, I do. I'm not naive about that. And there's a deep naivete, particularly coming from Trump's rhetoric around this," Newsom said after signing a climate agreement with Sweden in February. 

"You see the market changing all across the globe. I'm not going to cede that future and I don't want to recreate the 19th century," he continued. "The Trump administration promoted policies to roll back progress over the last half century as it relates to environmental standards. Their number one target – this was not just recent rhetoric – was our efforts as it relates to regulating tailpipe emissions."

The governor added that his administration was looking to "future-proof" its climate policies ahead of the November presidential election.

Newsom's office and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment for purposes of this story.