President Trump signed legislation Thursday rolling back California’s authority to impose electric vehicle mandates nationwide, using the White House ceremony to deliver a glowing and emotional tribute to his EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, a hometown hero from Shirley.
“Lee Zeldin, one of the most important men in this room,” Trump said, pointing toward the former congressman, state senator, and Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who now leads the Environmental Protection Agency. “He’s the man I get nervous when I talk to. He’s doing a great job.”
Zeldin, a William Floyd High School graduate and Iraq War veteran, stood quietly among a crowd that included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and top representatives from the auto and energy sectors.
President Trump praised Zeldin’s military service with the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, noting his work with an infantry battalion’s legal team while deployed in 2006. “He blows you guys away. He blows the politicians away,” Trump said, gesturing at lawmakers in the audience.
Zeldin, who nearly won New York’s governorship in 2022, received what Trump called a “standing assignment” to cut through red tape and accelerate energy project approvals.
“Nuclear: I say, okay, you can take two weeks for that approval,” the president told Zeldin. “It used to take 20 years, then they wouldn’t approve it. Now I say, Lee, nuclear—I’ll give you two weeks. A coal-fired plant, you only get a couple of days. Oil and gas? A week. He’s doing it so fast, and we have so many plants being built right now—it’s beautiful to see.”
The president tied the rollback of EV mandates directly to America’s growing energy demands, driven in part by the revolution in Artificial Intelligence. “We’re building massive electricity right now. It’s already started because of that guy right there, Lee Zeldin,” Trump said.
The president formally signed resolutions nullifying several California emissions programs under the Congressional Review Act. The rules, previously granted waivers under the Clean Air Act, allowed California to enforce stricter vehicle emission standards and effectively push electric vehicle adoption nationwide. Trump declared those programs now “fully and expressly preempted.”
Since New York follows California’s stricter standards of the Clean Air Act, this federal action preempts those standards, legally blocking New York from enforcing its EV mandates, which call for eliminating all gas and diesel engines by 2035. New York is among 11 states (including California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Washington) that have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Trump’s move, alleging federal overreach and improper use of the review act.
“Preemption of these programs is essential to preserving the Constitution’s allocation of power,” Trump said. “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.”
He emphasized that greenhouse gas emissions do not qualify as “compelling and extraordinary local conditions,” the threshold for waiver approval under the Clean Air Act. “Accordingly,” Trump said, “the joint resolutions prohibit the EPA from approving future waivers for California that would impose California’s policy goals across the entire country.”
The move is one of the administration’s most dramatic environmental policy reversals, delivering a clear message to automakers, energy producers, and consumers: internal combustion is here to stay, and the federal government, not California, sets the rules.
Though silent during the ceremony, Zeldin appeared moved by the president’s public show of confidence. Trump called his work “more important” than any political campaign. “What you’re doing now is even bigger, if you want to know the truth,” the president said.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other top officials nodded as Trump closed the event by signing the resolutions into law. “Because of what we’ve done today,” Trump declared, “we’re ending the electric vehicle mandate for good.”