Congress killed California's EV mandate nine months ago.
California kept enforcing it anyway.
Now a House chairman is forcing Newsom's own emails into the open – and what those documents reveal could blow up the entire operation.
California Kept Enforcing Its Banned EV Mandate and Blocked New Gas-Powered Cars
In June 2025, President Trump signed three Congressional Review Act resolutions stripping California of its authority to ban gas-powered vehicles. The vote was bipartisan. The law was clear. The case was closed.
Except California didn't close it.
Rep. Brett Guthrie – the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee – says the California Air Resources Board, the state's vehicle emissions regulator, started blocking automakers from bringing new cars to market unless they agreed to comply with the exact mandate Congress had just nullified. Toyota. Ford. Every manufacturer that wanted to sell vehicles in the country's largest state had to play by rules that no longer legally existed.
"The Committee began its investigation after reports that the California Air Resources Board had been denying approvals to bring new vehicles to market unless auto manufacturers agreed to comply with California's burdensome EV mandate, despite the fact it had been nullified by CRA resolutions signed into law last June," Guthrie said.
That's a state agency using its gatekeeping power to override an act of Congress.
Congress Subpoenaed Newsom Over Secret California EV Mandate Emails
Guthrie's committee started investigating in August 2025. For months, CARB stonewalled – slow-walking requests, providing incomplete responses, running out the clock. After repeated accommodations, Guthrie ran out of patience.
On March 31, he issued a subpoena to CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez – his first as committee chairman – demanding every document and communication tied to California's enforcement of the nullified EV regulations.
Here's what Newsom doesn't want you to see: the subpoena specifically targets communications between CARB and the governor's office, and between CARB and California's attorney general. Guthrie isn't just investigating a rogue agency. He's investigating whether Newsom himself directed CARB to defy federal law.
That's why CARB stonewalled for eight months. Those emails exist. And now Congress is going to read them.
California EV Mandate Is Costing You Money at the Dealership
The mandate California is illegally enforcing required 35 percent of all model year 2026 vehicle sales to be zero-emission – a target Toyota's own CEO called "impossible" when consumer EV market share nationally sat below 10 percent.
When California blocks a gas-powered car from approval, that car doesn't disappear. Automakers limit which vehicles reach which markets, shift production, and absorb compliance fines of up to $20,000 per vehicle short of the quota. Those costs land on the sticker price of the car you buy.
The DOJ filed a separate federal lawsuit against California's air board in March, calling the mandate illegal and warning it would force every major carmaker to overhaul production lines nationwide to meet standards tougher than what federal law requires. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Biden-era EV rules caused Detroit's Big Three to eat $50 billion in losses.
"Forcing Americans to buy unreliable, and costly, EVs would eliminate consumer choice, strain our electric grid, raise costs, and increase our reliance on entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party," Guthrie wrote in his subpoena letter.
China. That part matters. The minerals required to manufacture EV batteries – lithium, cobalt, manganese – run through supply chains largely controlled by Beijing. Every vehicle California forces off the gas-powered market and onto an EV platform depends on Chinese components.
Newsom Has Defied Federal Law Before and Always Paid No Price
This is how California operates. When federal courts struck down Berkeley's ban on natural gas in new construction, the city had already embedded the policy for years. When federal judges overturn California's gun restrictions, Sacramento passes a new version the same session. The goal is never compliance – it's delay, obstruction, and attrition.
The EV mandate is the same playbook. Trump kills the federal authority. Newsom passes emergency regulations under a different legal theory. The DOJ sues. CARB stonewalls Congress. Meanwhile, automakers – trying to stay in a market of 40 million people – quietly fall into line with rules that shouldn't exist.
Congress just broke the cycle. The subpoena means Newsom's communications are no longer protected by bureaucratic foot-dragging. Guthrie will read every email between CARB and the governor's office. He'll find out exactly how coordinated this obstruction was – and who gave the order to keep blocking cars after Trump signed the law.
California has until the deadline to comply. And this time, "slow-walking" is contempt of Congress.
Sources:
- Brett Guthrie, "Chairman Guthrie Issues Subpoena to California Air Resources Board," House Committee on Energy and Commerce, March 31, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, "President Trump's Justice Department & Transportation Department Sue to Stop California's Illegal EV Mandate," DOJ Office of Public Affairs, March 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Transportation, "President Trump's Transportation Department & Justice Department Sue to Stop California's Illegal EV Mandate," DOT, March 12, 2026.
- Jack Hollis (Toyota Motor North America COO), via CNBC, "Toyota says California-led EV mandates are 'impossible' as states fall short of goal," November 8, 2024.
