{"id":379403,"date":"2025-05-22T15:17:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379403"},"modified":"2025-05-22T15:17:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:17:26","slug":"steve-milloy-senate-should-ignore-the-parliamentarian-on-electric-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379403","title":{"rendered":"STEVE MILLOY: Senate Should Ignore The Parliamentarian On Electric Vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE DAILY CALLER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Daily<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Steve Milloy
<\/strong>Contributor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who runs the Senate? The democratically elected Majority Leader, Sen. John Thune? Or leftover partisan Harry Reid<\/a>-appointee, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer to that question may very well determine whether the Republican-controlled Senate will able to vote this week on whether to repeal the Biden EPA decision<\/a> to allow California to establish a national mandate for electric vehicles (EVs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Clean Air Act allows EPA to grant waivers<\/a> to the state of California in order for the state to set more stringent air pollution regulations than EPA sets for other states. The basic rational for this rule is that California has special environmental conditions. The populous Los Angeles region, for example, is located essentially in a bowl that traps and concentrates air pollution when the wind isn\u2019t blowing. (RELATED: STEVE MILLOY: \u2018All Of the Above\u2019 Is DEI For Energy)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2024, the Biden EPA granted California a Clean Air Act waiver to mandate that only EVs can be sold in the state by 2035. Although California\u2019s mandate technically only applies to the state, it is really a national problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California is a large part of the US new car market. Car makers don\u2019t make one type of car for California and another type of car for the other 49 states. They make one type of car for all 50 states. There is genuine concern that California\u2019s EV mandate would become a de facto<\/em> national mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the Biden EPA was late to issue the December 2024 waiver, it is now subject to the Congressional Review Act<\/a> (CRA). Under the 1996 law, Congress may repeal regulations by a simple majority vote, no filibuster permitted, within 60 legislative days of a regulation\u2019s issuance.  The House voted on May 1 to repeal the California waiver and now it is the Senate\u2019s turn to do so. The Senate has until the first week of June to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of the House vote, the General Accounting Office tried to derail the CRA rule by characterizing<\/a> the waiver as a permit versus a regulation, where permits are not eligible to be repealed by the filibuster-proof CRA. But while the EPA granted permission to California to regulate more stringently, the end result is more stringent regulation. The waiver, therefore, is a clearly a regulation and not some sort of permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Johnson rightly chose to ignore the weird General Accounting Office interpretation of the waiver. The House subsequently passed<\/a> the repeal, 246 to 164, with 35 Democrats joining all 211 Republicans present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But opponents of the CRA action still have hope because the Senate Parliamentarian, appointed to her post by Democrat and then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2012, thinks the GAO was correct. She has some Republicans uncertain of their position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Politico<\/a>, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said has \u201csome procedural issues\u201d with the waiver. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is \u201cdiscussing the issue with colleagues and not yet ready to make a decision.\u201d \u201cThere is obviously apprehension if we go sideways on our own rules and so I\u2019m having a lot of good conversations,\u201d Murkowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even West Virginia\u2019s Sen. Shelley Moore Capito told Politico, she wasn\u2019t \u201c100 percent decided\u201d yet. This holdout behavior is outrageous and Leader Thune should not stand for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the Parliamentarian is plainly wrong. The waiver is a regulation not a mere permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the Parliamentarian is plainly partisan. Beyond her Harry Reid-era provenance, she conveniently decided all the climate provisions and spending in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act were budget- versus policy-related and so could be voted on under the non-filibusterable reconciliation process. But for her decision, the IRA would never have been enacted and President Trump and congressional Republicans wouldn\u2019t be burdened with repealing a trillion-plus dollars worth of Green New Scam spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the Parliamentarian\u2019s opinion is just like the GAO\u2019s \u2013 i.e., merely advisory in nature. Leader Thune is not bound by Senate rules or any law to accept it. It would be absurd for a Republican-controlled Senate to allow a leftover Democrat administrative appointee to dictate the measures upon which Senate Republicans may vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump campaigned on ending the EV mandate. Leader Thune should bring the California waiver up for vote next week and have Vice President JD Vance on-hand, if necessary, for a tie-breaking vote. Then, after winning the vote, appoint a new Parliamentarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Milloy is a biostatistician and lawyer, publishes JunkScience.com and is on X @JunkScience.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter\u2019s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who runs the Senate? The democratically elected Majority Leader, Sen. John Thune? Or leftover partisan\u00a0Harry Reid-appointee, Senate Parliamentarian\u00a0Elizabeth MacDonough?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":379406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818068,691821977,691835248,691835242,691835244,691835245,691835247,691835246,691835249],"class_list":{"0":"post-379403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-electric-vehicles-evs","10":"tag-harry-reid","11":"tag-republican-controlled-senate","12":"tag-sen-john-thune","13":"tag-sen-lisa-murkowski","14":"tag-sen-shelley-moore-capito","15":"tag-sen-susan-collins","16":"tag-vice-president-jd-vance","18":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/OIG-2023-10-24T133917.042.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1AHp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":208906,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=208906","url_meta":{"origin":379403,"position":0},"title":"Senator Manchin punctures Biden\u2019s climate agenda \u2013 again","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Inside the rotunda of the West Virginia statehouse in downtown Charleston stands about a nine-foot\u00a0statue\u00a0of the late U.S. Senator Robert C. 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