Congress Turns Up the Heat on CARB

The political winds out of Washington, D.C. blew especially sharp last week, carrying a message California’s regulators have long hoped wouldn’t arrive: accountability.

Three powerful congressional chairmen, including Rep. Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Rep. John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), and Rep. Gary Palmer (AL-06), have put the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on notice.

The House Committee on Energy & Commerce, exercising its oversight authority over the Clean Air Act, is demanding long-stonewalled documents, internal emails, policy guidance, and transcribed interviews with the very top of California’s air-quality hierarchy. The deadline is December 5.

This federal pressure campaign isn’t just another D.C. skirmish. For California’s independent oil and natural gas producers, those who still dare to drill, refine, haul, and keep this state’s energy blood flowing, this could be the opening salvo in a long-overdue reckoning of CARB’s regulatory overreach.

And that matters. A lot.

In its press release, the Committee spelled out the grievance plainly: CARB appears to be ignoring federal law, specifically the newly enacted Congressional Review Act resolutions signed by President Trump that revoked California’s Clean Air Act waivers for vehicle emissions.

Those waivers were the legal foundation for California’s attempted gasoline-vehicle ban and its increasingly aggressive EV-only mandates. With the waivers gone, so too is California’s authority to set stricter emissions standards than the federal government.

Yet CARB, according to Congress, has been proceeding as though nothing changed. Instead of complying with federal law, they’ve offered what lawmakers called “woefully inadequate” responses and continued to enforce standards that are no longer legal.

Congress now wants:

• Internal CARB guidance on how staff were told to treat the invalidated rules

• Communications with other states

• Correspondence with the governor

• Documents with the Attorney General’s office

• Policy memos and decision-making records
  

If CARB doesn’t deliver, Congress will compel testimony from:

• Lauren Sanchez, CARB Chair

• Liane Randolph, former CARB Chair

• Steven Cliff, Executive Officer

• Shannon Dilley, Chief Counsel

• Christopher Grundler, Deputy Executive Officer, Mobile Sources

• Robin Lang, Division Chief, Emissions Certification & Compliance
  

Congress wants these interviews wrapped before December 12, roughly the speed of light in government terms.

Why This Matters for California’s Oil Industry

This isn’t just a turf war between federal and state regulators. It strikes at the heart of California’s crusade against liquid fuels and the state’s insistence on bending federal law to maintain its anti-petroleum regime.

CARB’s invalidated vehicle mandates were designed to:

• Restrict the market for gasoline-powered vehicles

• Artificially force electrification

• Compress consumer choice

• Accelerate the collapse of the in-state refining industry

• Reduce demand for in-state crude
  

For independent producers, CARB’s unlawful overreach has meant:

• Endless uncertainty

• Ever-tightening regulatory nooses

• A demand-side environment engineered to erode their customer base

• Huge increases in imported foreign crude

• An unlawful and unacknowledged attempt to ban the very product California still consumes 1.8 million barrels per day
  

If federal oversight reins in CARB’s excesses, several positive outcomes could follow:

1. A More Stable Market for Liquid Fuels: Without state-mandated EV quotas that violate federal law, demand for gasoline remains market-driven instead of politically distorted.

2. Regulatory Predictability: Producers cannot plan capital, production, staffing, or investment when CARB constantly shifts the goalposts. If Congress forces compliance, California can’t run a rogue emissions regime.

3. A Slower and More Rational Transition: California consumes more petroleum than any other state except Texas. Realistic timelines matter. Federal intervention could temper the state’s rush to eliminate liquid fuels before viable alternatives exist. The only goal CARB has effectively achieved is a massive decrease in in-state oil production and an equally massive increase in foreign imports.

4. Accountability for CARB’s Pattern of Defiance: CARB’s habit of interpreting federal law as optional has consequences. The more often this becomes a matter of national scrutiny, the more pressure California faces to follow actual statutes, not political ideology.
   

The Federal Alliance Behind the Push: DEPA

It’s worth emphasizing: CIPA is not alone in this fight. Our national ally, the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA), has been one of the most steadfast champions of federal oversight, state rights, lawful regulatory boundaries, and the importance of American-made energy. CIPA CEO Rock Zierman is on the board of DEPA.

DEPA’s leadership has long warned Congress that California’s regulatory experiments distort national markets and undermine domestic production. Their voice, alongside CIPA’s, has helped drive this renewed federal push for transparency and enforcement.

CIPA and DEPA together represent thousands of small and independent operators who don’t have the luxury of shrugging off regulatory chaos. This congressional action is, in a very real sense, a validation of the warnings our sector has been raising for years.

Bigger Picture: Could Congress Strip California’s Waiver Authority Entirely?

Perhaps the most intriguing nugget buried in the press release is this: the requested documents will help Congress evaluate whether Clean Air Act section 209(b) waivers “should be eliminated or otherwise modified.” That is seismic.

If Congress considers:

• Ending California’s unique authority

• Rewriting Section 209(b)

• Or limiting EV and emissions mandates to the federal standard

…then the era of CARB’s unrestrained regulatory empire may be nearing its twilight.

That would fundamentally reshape the future of energy, vehicle markets, and fuel policy in California, and bring enormous benefits to the independent producers who’ve long borne the brunt of CARB’s ideological crusades.

CIPA’s Takeaway: Stay Tuned, This Story Is Just Beginning

Congressional investigations are one thing. Congressional subpoenas are another. But congressional threats to eliminate California’s special emissions authority? That’s a whole new ball game.

For CIPA members, operators who’ve fought for years against impossible regulations, this oversight action is more than political theatre. It’s momentum. It’s scrutiny. And it’s a reminder that even in California, regulatory agencies cannot simply rewrite the law to suit their agendas.

CIPA will continue monitoring these developments closely, working with DEPA and our federal partners to ensure California’s independent oil producers are heard, protected, and represented in Washington.

The wind is shifting. And for once, they’re blowing in CIPA’s direction.