President Donald Trump overturned California’s authoritarian ban on gas-powered vehicles on Thursday, signing a resolution approved by Congress last month.

California became the first state in the nation to pursue a phase-out of gas-powered cars, attempting to halt all new sales by 2035 and effectively force its citizens to purchase electric vehicles. After Trump’s move, Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., who is currently letting Los Angeles burn by not responding to riots there, signed a reciprocal order reaffirming the ban, while Rob Bonta, the state’s far-left attorney general, filed a lawsuit against the move.

“We officially rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating the California electric vehicle mandate once and for all,” Trump said at the bill signing, noting, “It’s been a disaster for this country.”

The bills passed with bipartisan support, and in a further statement on Thursday evening, Trump said a grouping of three interrelated measures he signed would “prevent California’s attempt to impose a nationwide electric vehicle mandate and to regulate national fuel economy by regulating carbon emissions.”

The statement noted also that the reason the federal government has the purview over emissions standards is because of the “inherently interstate nature of air quality,” adding, “Our Constitution does not allow one State special status to create standards that limit consumer choice and impose an electric vehicle mandate upon the entire Nation.”

California’s emissions regulations actually predate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), likely because the state has had such an issue with air pollution, and it has been able to regulate its own air since the creation of the EPA by obtaining waivers from the federal agency in order to enact more strict standards than federally required.

Through invoking the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows for Congress to block executive action within 60 legislative days, Trump blocked the Biden EPA’s December approval of California’s waiver, and any waivers in the future that are “substantially the same” as those blocked by the resolutions he signed Thursday, “ending the electric vehicle mandate for good.”

The standards adopted by California to ban gas car sales by 2035 had been adopted by 11 other states and the District of Columbia, meaning 40 percent of the country’s car market would have been forced to purchase electric vehicles against their will.

Trump’s move came just in time, as well, with the electric vehicle requirements starting for 2026 models, forcing 35 percent of all cars to be plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles across all 12 states and D.C. that adopted the requirement. It would have also adopted a credit system based on that number and fined automakers $10,000 for each credit they fall short.

Bonta’s lawsuit challenging the move from the Trump administration argues that the CRA can only be used for federal agency actions that apply generally, and that California’s waiver is specific to the state. The 11 other states that imposed the mandate joined the lawsuit.

Given how giddy federal district judges have been about attempting to usurp executive authority throughout the Trump administration, it is possible California and the rest of the states will find success. However, the 9th Circuit did just overturn a lower court opinion in favor of Trump earlier this week. The ruling dealt with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to help stop the destruction of Los Angeles.

Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.