A West Virginia lawmaker led the successful push Thursday in the U.S. Senate to block California’s electric vehicle mandate, a rule that could have impacted a third of the country.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., speaking to West Virginia reporters during her weekly media briefing, said the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed her joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to repeal California’s EV mandate.
Had that rule been allowed to stand, it would have mandated that 30 percent of the country would have to transition to electric vehicles over gas powered vehicles, Capito said.
“Today, this morning early, under my leadership in particular, we took down the California EV electric vehicle mandate,” Capito said. “It was going to mandate that 30 percent of this country was going to have to next year sell — 30 percent of the cars would have to be full-out electric vehicles. And then by the year 2035 every vehicle sold would be electric. Not hybrid. Not gas powered. All electric. An unreasonable, incredibly far reaching and I think very damaging to the economy, very damaging to auto jobs and other jobs all across the country.”
Capito said the California EV mandate was pushed by former President Joe Biden before he left office. She said the Trump administration will now move forward with “common sense regulations” that lead not only to cleaner air but also keeps the nation’s economy intact while ensuring car buyers have a choice between gas-powered or electric vehicles.
Capito said in West Virginia last year only 2.3 percent of all new vehicles sold were electric. She said even in New York, which was one of the state’s impacted by the California mandate, only 10 percent of all vehicles sold in 2024 were electric.
“There is no way, there is no practical way that anybody could reach this far reaching rule the Biden administration put forward as they were walking out the door,” she said.
Capito said Thursday’s U.S. Senate vote sends her joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to President Donald Trump’s desk for approval. Trump is expected to sign it.
“The EV mandate is very unpopular across the country,” Capito said, adding that electric vehicles won’t work as intended in certain states like West Virginia.
“So you are in West Virginia. You are going to go to Canaan Valley and you are going to go over beautiful Corridor H and you are going to have about a three or three-and-a-half-hour drive that you can do, especially if it is cold. Where you gonna charge? How you gonna get there? How long is it going to take you to get there? I mean in certain areas it just does not work.”
About a dozen of mostly other Democratic states were following California’s lead on the EV mandate. California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, according to the Associated Press.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and other Democrats, argue that gas-powered vehicles are one of the largest sources of emissions that contribute to climate change.
Capito also was asked again Thursday about the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed the U.S. House Thursday by a vote of 215 to 214, and about her support for work requirements for Medicaid under that budget bill.
“The Big, Beautiful Bill was passed very early this morning by our House of Representatives,” Capito said. “I congratulate Congressman Moore and Congressman Miller for their efforts there. We look forward to receiving it over here on the Senate side. There is tax relief. There is spending, curbing the spending in certain areas and I think it is going to lead us to a much better, more prosperous and growing path. We will have our own ideas here in the Senate and so we will be working that as we move through the month of June.”
The veteran West Virginia lawmaker clarified her support for the work requirement Thursday by stating that it only applied to abled-body adults without dependents. Capito said no one who is elderly, pregnant woman or those who are disabled will be required to work to receive their Medicaid benefits.
“This is only able-bodied people without dependents,” Capito said. “I think asking them to work several hours a week is well within the reach. I think there are a lot of reasons to work. Besides you are working for a benefit and you are getting money. But it is also a self-esteem thing. You are committed to your community. You are getting up and going out (to work). I think this is something our state can enact, and I think we should. So I support the work benefit for Medicaid in the expanded, abled-bodied population that is now receiving Medicaid.”
Capito said those who are not eligible for Medicaid should not be receiving Medicaid benefits.
“I want to see Medicaid be there for the people that it is designed for,” she said. “And that means people that are ineligible should not be getting benefits and should be removed. That means people who may be here illegally, and are not entitled to benefits, should be removed.”
Capito also once again refuted arguments by Democrats that the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts in the new budget bill will only benefit the wealthy.
If those tax cuts aren’t extended, Capito said every single working American — regardless of their tax bracket — would see their taxes go up.
Capito said small businesses also won’t see their taxes increase under the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” adding that small businesses employ 90 percent of West Virginia workers in the Mountain State.