California files lawsuit to protect Californians’ health and wallets

(Washington, D.C. – June 22, 2026) The State of California announced today that it is suing the Trump administration for its latest attack on California’s efforts to protect its residents from harmful air pollution.   

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, challenges EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s supposed reclassification of four California clean air safeguards as “rules” and his transmission of those actions to Congress for “review” under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). 

“California’s clean vehicles standards save thousands of lives, protect people from soot and smog that puts them at risk for serious health problems, save money, and reduce the climate pollution that contributes to threats ranging from deadly wildfires to soaring insurance costs,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California Senior Director for Environmental Defense Fund. “The Trump administration’s efforts to undermine these vital safeguards will only mean more harm and higher costs in California.” 

The Clean Air Act allows California to adopt its own more protective vehicle emission standards and requires that EPA approve preemption waivers for those safeguards except in narrow circumstances not present here. For more than 50 years, across both Republican and Democratic administrations, EPA has granted California more than 75 preemption waivers, helping ensure that the state can protect its citizens’ health. Across that time, EPA has always considered these actions as “orders” and not “rules” – and thus not subject to the CRA.  

However, last year Congress used the CRA to try to revoke three already-approved waivers for the state’s clean vehicle standards. That move followed the Senate Parliamentarian, the office specially charged with determining which agency actions are subject to Congressional review, the independent Congressional Research Service, and even Congressional opponents determining that the waivers were not subject to the CRA. (California and 10 other states are already suing in that matter. Environmental Defense Fund and others filed an amicus brief in support of the California standards.) 

Then earlier this month, on June 12, Administrator Zeldin announced that he had sent four more California clean air safeguards to Congress for CRA review. Today California filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging that measure as well.  

“California’s safeguards to reduce harmful air pollution are firmly grounded in longstanding and time-tested Clean Air Act authority, and EPA is again trying to use extreme and unlawful measures to override that clear authority,” said Peter Zalzal, Distinguished Counsel and Associate Vice President for Environmental Defense Fund. “We stand firmly with California as it seeks to protect people’s lives, health, and wallets against these unlawful and deeply harmful attacks.”