Two years after Maryland began a campaign to phase out gas-powered cars, President Donald Trump pulled the plug on it.

The president signed a trio of congressional resolutions earlier this month blocking rules — set by California and adopted by other states including Maryland — designed to reduce the market for gas-powered cars and eventually ban combustion engines from new car dealership lots in the next decade.

Designed to help reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, the rules called for electric vehicle sales to account for 35% of all new car sales by the fall of 2026, rising to 100% by 2035.

Such sales in Maryland already lagged far below those benchmarks, and so far the state isn’t fighting to preserve the policy, which was targeted by Republicans skeptical of climate change and concerned about consumer choice. While California and 10 other states sued the Trump administration over the move, Maryland is notably absent from the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Congress could soon kill a $7,500 federal tax credit seen as pivotal for convincing many Americans to buy electric. And, despite middling demand, funds for Maryland’s own EV tax credit dried up months before the end of the 2025 fiscal year.

Such moves are expected to impede the weak but growing adoption of electric vehicles in Maryland and elsewhere.

What’s next for Maryland isn’t clear.

A spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who announced the adoption of California’s vehicle emissions standards shortly after he was inaugurated, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

The state has taken some steps to incentivize EVs on its own, including authorizing more than $8 million each year through 2027 for its tax credit program, rebates for charging equipment, and working to expand charging infrastructure in low-income communities.

But without the federal tax credit and absent the penalties for automakers who don’t meet EV sales benchmarks, the market could struggle.

Many buyers avoided EVs due to high prices and a limited charging network. Barely 13% of new car sales in Maryland were electric last year. Meanwhile, consumer interest nationally seems to be waning, according to a recent AAA survey, despite a growing number of options.

Faced with that reality, Moore opted in April to delay penalizing automakers in 2026 and 2027.

One climate advocate said Moore’s executive order opened the door for Congress to undermine the California emissions rules.

“The truth of it is that Maryland really led the deregulatory cascade that got us here, which is pretty unfortunate,” said Craig Segall, a California-based consultant who previously led the regulatory team that established that state’s EV mandates.

According to Segall, it played out this way: When automotive industry lobbyists leaned on states to weaken targets for electric cars and trucks, Moore was the first to cave.

Other liberal states, like Oregon and Vermont, followed. Then, industry officials waved those decisions in front of Congressional Democrats, lobbying them to help block the California rules.

The House of Representatives ultimately approved the resolutions by a comfortable margin, with 35 Democrats in favor. The Senate later passed the measure 51-44.

With Trump’s move, Maryland lost its powers to penalize car manufacturers — welcome news for some.

Maryland Automobile Dealers Association President Peter Kitzmiller said even with the breathing room provided by Moore, the industry has long preferred uniform national standards. These mandates were never going to boost EV sales, Kitzmiller has maintained, even arguing during the legislative session that manufacturers would have cut supplies of gas-powered cars to Maryland rather than pay fines for missing state targets.

Many environmental advocates, though, see the EV standards as critical to slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

Lindsey Mendelson, transportation representative for the Maryland Sierra Club, pointed to 2023 data showing higher EV adoption rates in states that embraced the California rules. And as Mendelson pointed out, state environmental regulators describe the EV rules as their “single largest long-term strategy” for fighting climate change.

“The state has not indicated it has a backup plan for how to meet our climate goals without these programs,” she said.

The Maryland Department of the Environment emphasized the state’s progress in a statement.

By delaying manufacturer penalties, MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said the state has supported “a transition that works for working families.” Maryland has already surpassed 135,000 EV registrations, he noted, a number that continues to grow.

“We’re committed to achieving the same climate goals in a way that balances climate policy with economic opportunity,” Apperson said.

For now, Maryland may be left to wait as other states fight an uphill battle to restore the California EV standards.

That may be difficult, said Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. Congressional approval makes this harder to overturn in court than if Trump had forced measures through unilaterally, he said.

Attorney General Anthony Brown, who has taken many of Trump’s moves to court, hasn’t hinted that he’ll wade into this fight.

“There are many factors we consider in deciding whether to pursue litigation, and in this case we decided the better path for Maryland was to monitor the CA case as we assess options,” an attorney general’s spokesperson said.

Still, Kitzmiller sees the end of the federal tax credit as a bigger hurdle than ending the California rules. Maryland auto dealers have invested more than $100 million in the EV transition and aren’t looking to reverse course, he said.

Industry and environmentalist groups hope a new task force, established under Moore’s executive order, will devise strategies to get more Maryland residents to buy electric.

Segall, meanwhile, painted this new era in EV policy as an opportunity for nationally minded Democrats like Moore.

Even with Republicans running Washington, the former California regulator said there are many ways Moore could buoy the EV market. Maryland could issue loans for EV purchases from the state green bank, set special rates on the state power grid for car charging, or even join forces with other states to ink a new deal with auto manufacturers, Segall suggested.

He challenged the governor: “Will Moore, who clearly wants to be president someday, lead this national transition? Or won’t he?”

Banner reporter Daniel Zawodny contributed to this article.