WASHINGTON — President Trump signed legislation Thursday to override California regulations that sought to make nearly all new vehicles electric by 2035 — while announcing plans for a new ban on windmills citing the “junkyard” optics of the area around Palm Springs.
Trump, citing the fact that 17 states — including New York and New Jersey — generally follow California emissions rules, said he would “officially rescue the US auto industry from destruction” by scrapping the Golden State’s ambitious regulatory plan for cars and trucks.
Trump said a trio of bills that he signed in the White House East Room would “kill the California mandates forever.”
“You can’t do anything about it, they can’t take us to court, they can’t do any of the things they can do with executive orders, and it’s permanent,” he crowed.
“They said it couldn’t be done,” Trump said. “They’d pass these crazy rules in California and 17 states would go by them. Automakers wouldn’t know what to do because they’re really building cars for two countries, when you have 17 states.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) was the lone Democrat in the upper chamber to support any of the Republican legislation. In the House, 35 Democrats backed the three measures.
Sacramento had mandated that 100% of new cars in the state be “zero-emission vehicles” by 2035 — with carmakers required to sell at least 80% electric vehicles and allowed to make up the remainder of their offering with approved plug-in hybrids.
Just 23% of new cars sold in California were “zero emissions” electric or hybrid varieties in the first quarter of 2025, according to state government data — ahead of the national market share.
Trump announced other priorities in his wide-ranging remarks, including touting nuclear power and trashing windmills, which he said his administration would curtail.
“We’re not going to let windmills get built because we’re not going to destroy our country any further than it’s already been destroyed,” Trump said.
“You go and look at these beautiful plains and valleys and they’re loaded up with this garbage that gets worse and worse looking with time — starts when the rust comes, 4.5 years … So we’re not going to approve windmills unless something happens that’s an emergency. I guess it could happen, but we’re not doing any of them.”
“If you go to Palm Springs, California, take a look,” the president ranted.
“You go into this beautiful community and before it’s like you’re riding through a junkyard. Windmills all over the place — tall ones, short ones, dead ones — they’re all dead, some are hanging on by a thread. They never take them down. They just leave them there and they start to rust. It’s one of the greatest scams.”
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