California's port mandates are heading to Congress, and the rest of the country is already paying for them.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent two California Clean Air Act waivers to Congress on Wednesday, opening the door for lawmakers to wipe out another pair of the state’s environmental mandates.
Both involve ports. One covers ocean-going ships while they are docked. The other applies to ferries, tugboats, excursion vessels, and other commercial harbor craft.
The EPA concluded that the waivers count as rules under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The Biden administration never submitted them to Congress, according to the agency, meaning lawmakers were never given the chance to review them.
Administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA is now doing what should have been done in the first place.
“EPA is once again fulfilling our statutory obligation to submit California waiver rules to Congress. 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.
“This is how we remain accountable to all Americans, instead of picking winners and losers like previous Administrations.”
The first target is California’s “At Berth” regulation. It requires certain ships to cut emissions while docked, including by plugging into shore-based electrical power instead of running their engines.
The EPA says those requirements drive up shipping costs, strain port infrastructure, and add pressure to supply chains nationwide.
California may write the rules, but California shoppers will not be the only ones paying for them. Goods moving through the state’s enormous ports end up in stores across the country. Every added expense gets passed along somewhere.
The second waiver involves California’s Commercial Harbor Craft amendments.
The EPA described the requirements this way:
“This waiver rule imposes burdensome and unrealistic zero-emission requirements on vessels. The maritime industry has faced economic hardship while trying to comply and Americans have suffered through maritime jobs being threatened and prices being raised on goods shipped by sea.”
The state first adopted its Commercial Harbor Craft regulation in 2008. California regulators expanded it in 2022 to cover more vessels and require cleaner engines and newer technology. The amendments took effect on January 1, 2023.
State officials say the rules will cut diesel pollution and protect workers and passengers on board. Sacramento's pitch is the same one it always makes: pay the costs now, trust the benefits later, and do not ask too many questions about who actually foots the bill.
Even the Biden EPA did not give California everything it wanted.
The Biden EPA approved most of the Commercial Harbor Craft amendments on January 6, 2025, but held off on two sections. Those included zero-emission requirements for certain short-run ferries and standards that would have kicked in after feasibility extensions expired. California later withdrew those requests and says it is not enforcing the rejected portions.
Read More: Is the Trump Energy Dominance Agenda Threatened by His Own Justice Department?
THE ESSEX FILES: Gas Shortages Loom in California As Refineries Shut Down, Rules Bite
This fight has already been tested with California’s vehicle mandates.
The EPA sent three vehicle-emissions waivers to Congress in early 2025. Congress rejected them under the CRA, and President Donald Trump signed the resolutions into law that June.
As it has since the start of Trump’s presidency, Sacramento Democrats responded with lawsuits.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the California Air Resources Board sought an injunction last month after the EPA submitted four more waivers involving cars and small off-road engines. That case does not cover Wednesday’s two maritime waivers, and Bonta's office has signaled it will bring the same challenge here.
California insists the waivers are agency "orders," not "rules," and therefore cannot be touched through the Congressional Review Act. Bonta said:
"The Trump Administration is resorting to a familiar illegal playbook. Its continuous, outright assault on California's waivers is blatantly politically motivated, and California won't stand for this."
The last time California made that argument, it lost. Congress rejected three vehicle waivers under the CRA and Trump signed them into law. The same clock is now running on the ports.
If lawmakers reject these two waivers and Trump signs the resolutions, two more pieces of California's climate agenda will be headed overboard, and Sacramento will have the courts as its only remaining lifeline.
Editor’s Note: Hollywood, academia, and liberal elites are out of touch with the average American.
Help us continue to report the truth about what 77 million patriots voted for by joining RedState VIP and using promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member