335 Small Business Owners to Congress: Stop California’s ICE Vehicle Ban Regulation

SEMA-led coalition calls for congressional leadership to swiftly pass a CRA to prevent ACC II regulation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 2, 2025 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Citing the dire impact of California’s intended ban of internal combustion engine vehicles, a coalition of 335 small businesses, comprised of members of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), today urged U.S. House of Representatives and Senate leadership to put an immediate stop to the implementation of the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulation.

• ACC II is currently subject to Congressional Review Act oversight due to the significant disruptions it would cause for the nation’s economy and the $337 billion annual economic impact of the automotive aftermarket industry. Congress has a short window to respond to the transmission of the regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency.

In the SEMA-led letter to Republican leadership in the House and Senate, small business owners stressed the importance of swift, definitive action to schedule a vote to overturn

California’s regulatory land grab, which will limit vehicle choice for nearly 40% of American consumers.

“Congress is owed the opportunity to decide on the appropriateness of waivers granted in the waning days of the lame-duck Biden administration, just weeks after the American people resoundingly voted against candidates who favor EV mandates.

“Congress is owed the opportunity to determine whether a single state should be empowered to enact a heavy-handed policy that requires 100% of new cars, SUVs, and small trucks sold in California and 11 other states to be zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) by 2035.

“And Congress is owed the opportunity to determine if a single state is allowed to eschew a tradition of American innovation and ingenuity in favor of a flawed technology that the American people don’t want, that our businesses can’t use, and that our economy can’t sustain.”

Read the full letter. 

SEMA Says: “This is a classic ‘who decides?’ question,” said Karen Bailey-Chapman, SEMA’s senior vice president for public and government affairs. “We’ve seen a cavalcade of unelected bureaucrats trying to say that voters and their elected representatives can’t be trusted to make such decisions. But the decision about whether to ban the internal combustion engine doesn’t lie in Sacramento, or in the halls of the so-called ‘Government Accountability Office,’ or with an unelected parliamentarian, but with Congress itself.

“It’s time for Congress to exercise its lawful prerogative under the Congressional Review Act to stop the nonsense and let the will of voters be heard, to finally end California’s regulatory land grab over national automotive policy. This is a critical moment, and the American automotive aftermarket stands ready to develop innovative solutions to carbon emissions using American ingenuity.”

BACKGROUND  

SEMA and the specialty automotive aftermarket industry are not anti-EV; rather, they champion a technology-neutral approach that fosters innovation and ingenuity. SEMA will continue efforts to preserve Americans’ rights to vehicle choice and the automotive aftermarket industry’s ability to design, manufacture, and bring to market products that help solve the emissions challenge.

California’s ICE vehicle ban through EV mandates would represent a significant hit to the nation’s economy by causing irreparable harm to an industry that annually delivers a $337 billion economic impact and supports more than 1.3 million American jobs through domestic manufacturing and sales.

• 33% of the nation’s automotive aftermarket industry is ICE-dependent, representing over $100 billion in economic impact to the U.S. economy, and impacts roughly 330,000 jobs.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, SEMA, through its Driving Force Action SuperPAC, educated voters about the damaging impact of EV mandates, and the profound importance of empowering the automotive aftermarket to develop innovative solutions to carbon emissions using American ingenuity.

About SEMA

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) serves as a leading voice for the worldwide car culture, representing over 7,500 member companies that create, buy, sell, and use specialty-automotive parts that make vehicles more unique, attractive, convenient, safer, fun, and even like new again. Business member benefits include product development resources, market research, networking, education, legislative advocacy, and more. The Association organizes the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nev., and actively supports the career and business opportunities that the aftermarket generates. The industry contributes nearly $337 billion in economic impact to the U.S. economy, supports 1.3 million jobs nationally, and generates $52.3 billion in parts sales annually. For more information, visit www.sema.org.

Source: Specialty Equipment Market Association

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