Category: Lee zeldin
EPA to California: Don’t mess with America’s trucks
For decades, California has used its enormous market power to shape national vehicle policy, often pushing regulations far beyond its borders and into the daily lives of Americans who never voted for them. That long-running dynamic has now reached a critical moment.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to block California’s latest attempt to regulate heavy-duty trucks nationwide — a proposal first announced in 2025 but now entering a decisive phase of federal review.
California’s early emissions standards helped accelerate cleaner engines and better fuel systems. But leadership can turn into compulsion.
With final EPA action expected in 2026, the outcome will determine whether California can continue using its borders as a regulatory choke point for interstate trucking, or whether federal limits will finally be enforced.
Freight fright
At issue is California’s Heavy-Duty Inspection and Maintenance requirement, part of the state’s air-quality plan. The rule would apply not only to trucks registered in California, but to any heavy-duty vehicle operating within the state — including those registered elsewhere in the U.S. or even abroad. In practical terms, a truck hauling goods from Texas, Ohio, or Mexico could be forced to comply with California’s rules simply by crossing its borders.
The EPA has proposed disapproving that requirement, citing serious constitutional and statutory concerns.
This matters far beyond California. Heavy-duty trucks are the backbone of the American economy, moving food, fuel, medicine, building materials, and consumer goods across state lines every day.
Regulations that raise costs or restrict access for those vehicles ripple through supply chains and ultimately show up as higher prices at the checkout counter — including for online purchases. The EPA’s proposed action acknowledges that reality and draws a clear line between environmental policy and unlawful overreach.
Out of line
According to the agency, California’s proposal appears to violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents individual states from interfering with interstate trade. The Clean Air Act also requires state implementation plans to comply with federal law, and the EPA argues California’s approach fails that test. By attempting to regulate out-of-state and foreign-registered vehicles, California stepped into territory reserved for the federal government.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been blunt in explaining the agency’s position. California, he has argued, was never elected to govern the entire country, yet its regulatory ambitions — often justified in the name of climate policy — have imposed higher costs on Americans nationwide. Allowing one state to dictate trucking standards for the rest of the country undermines both federal law and economic stability.
Foreigners too
There is also a foreign-commerce issue that rarely gets discussed. California’s rule would apply to vehicles registered outside the United States, even though authority over foreign trade and international relations rests exclusively with the federal government. That alone raised red flags and reinforced the EPA’s conclusion that the state exceeded its legal authority.
This proposed disapproval is part of a broader federal effort to rein in California’s emissions authority. In 2025, the Department of Justice filed complaints against the California Air Resources Board, arguing that the state was effectively enforcing pre-empted federal standards through informal agreements with manufacturers. Together, these actions reflect growing concern in Washington that California has relied on market leverage rather than lawful authority to achieve national policy outcomes.
Waiver goodbye
Waivers are central to this conflict. For years, California received special permission under the Clean Air Act to set its own vehicle emissions standards, with other states allowed to follow its lead. Under the previous administration, the EPA granted waivers for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks, and Heavy-Duty Engine Omnibus NOx rules. Supporters framed them as environmental progress. Critics warned they would raise vehicle prices, limit consumer choice, strain the electric grid, and force changes the market was not ready to absorb — which is exactly what followed.
In June 2025, Congress overturned those waivers using the Congressional Review Act. That move sent a clear message: Vehicle standards should be national in scope, not dictated by a single state, regardless of its size or political influence. The EPA’s current review of California’s truck inspection rule builds directly on that message.
Supporters of California’s approach often point to the state’s historic role in improving air quality and advancing technology. That is true — up to a point. California’s early emissions standards helped accelerate cleaner engines and better fuel systems. But leadership can turn into compulsion, especially when it ignores regional differences, economic realities, and legal limits.
RELATED: Will Trump’s unconventional plan to stop the UN climate elites work?
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Recalibration
The heavy-duty truck sector makes this clear. Unlike passenger cars, trucks operate on thin margins and long replacement cycles. Fleet decisions are driven by reliability, infrastructure availability, and total cost of ownership. Mandating technologies before they are ready or widely supported does not accelerate progress; it creates higher costs and unintended consequences — especially when those mandates originate in a single state but affect national commerce.
The EPA’s move suggests that era may be nearing its end. By challenging California’s heavy-duty inspection requirement, the agency is asserting that environmental goals do not justify ignoring constitutional structure. Clean air matters — but so do the rule of law, economic practicality, and the free movement of goods across state lines.
The proposed disapproval remains open for public comment, after which the EPA is expected to take final action later this year. Whatever the outcome, the signal is unmistakable: Federal regulators are no longer willing to automatically defer to California when state ambition collides with national authority.
For truck drivers, fleet operators, manufacturers, and everyday consumers, this moment represents a recalibration. It reaffirms that vehicle regulation should be consistent nationwide — and that environmental policy works best when it respects both economic reality and the legal framework that holds the country together.
Stacey Abrams’s Climate Group Banked $5M in Taxpayer Funds Before Trump Admin Axed the Grant, Tax Docs Show
Rewiring America, the climate group where Democratic activist Stacey Abrams served as senior counsel, quietly banked more than $5 million in federal climate funding shortly before the Trump administration axed the Biden-era grant earlier this year, according to tax documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. They suggest that Abrams played a larger role in obtaining the grant than she claimed.
The post Stacey Abrams’s Climate Group Banked $5M in Taxpayer Funds Before Trump Admin Axed the Grant, Tax Docs Show appeared first on .
GIVING ‘EM ZEL! EPA Admin Lee Zeldin Reacts to Jasmine Crockett’s Epstein Botch [WATCH]
![GIVING ‘EM ZEL! EPA Admin Lee Zeldin Reacts to Jasmine Crockett’s Epstein Botch [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Zeldin-300x166.png "Zeldin")
‘Crocket makes Kamala Harris sound like Shakespeare.
JASMINE THE ‘GENIUS’: Lee Zeldin Torches Texas Rep After Bogus Epstein Claim
Better check those records again.
Jeff Epstein? The New York Physician? Jasmine Crockett Flames Republicans For Taking Cash From Normal Americans ‘Named Jeffrey Epstein.’
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) blasted Republicans for taking money from “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein”—except she called out lawmakers who merely accepted donations from people who share the same name and never took donations from the convicted pedophile, financial records show.
The post Jeff Epstein? The New York Physician? Jasmine Crockett Flames Republicans For Taking Cash From Normal Americans ‘Named Jeffrey Epstein.’ appeared first on .
Lee Zeldin humiliates Jasmine Crockett over her embarrassing accusation about Epstein donations
Left-wing firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) tried to smear Republicans with a bizarre attack about supposed campaign donations from deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein but got humiliated instead.
Crockett tried to insinuate that the disgraced financier had donated to the campaign of former Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York along with other Republican politicians.
‘Crockett should get censured for this and staff should be fired. What a shocking embarrassment.’
“Folks who also took money from somebody named Jeffrey Epstein, as I had my team dig in very quickly: Mitt Romney, the NRCC, Lee Zeldin, [former President] George Bush … McCain-Palin,” she said in a video that was circulated on social media.
“I just wanna be clear. If this is the standard that we’re gonna make, just know we gonna expose it all!” she added. “Just know that the FEC filings? They are available for everybody to review!”
Zeldin mocked her in a post on his social media account.
“Yes Crockett, a physician named Dr. Jeffrey Epstein (who is a totally different person than the other Jeffrey Epstein) donated to a prior campaign of mine,” he wrote.
“NO FREAKIN RELATION YOU GENIUS!” he added with interspersed clapping emojis.
Others hopped in to make fun of Crockett’s suggestion.
“My team dug into Representative Crocket. Did you know she died at the ALAMO?! Stop the presses,” joked one account.
“Please order immediate testing of the drinking water across her congressional district — something is seriously wrong with it,” added another.
A Blaze News request for comment to Crockett’s office was not immediately answered.
RELATED: Jasmine Crockett calls Trump a ‘piece of s**t’ during rant at left-wing rally
“Crockett should get censured for this and staff should be fired. What a shocking embarrassment to go to the floor with this kind of insane accusation, and have the WRONG JEFFREY EPSTEIN,” replied GOP communications expert Matt Whitlock.
Crockett has recently suggested that she may launch a campaign for the U.S. Senate as retribution against Texas Republicans who redistricted the congressional maps to help them in the midterm elections.
“If you want to take my seat of 766,000 away, I feel like there has to be some karma in that to where I take your seat that is for 30 million away,” she said in October. “So we are, you know, the primary is the primary. That’s cool, but you got to win the general. So we are doing some testing here shortly to see if I can expand the electorate.”
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