Established in 1967 when then-governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford-Carrell Act, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board, CARB is a department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency.

[3] Five of the governor-appointed board members are chosen from regional air pollution control or air quality management districts, including one each from:[3] Four governor-appointed board members are subject matter experts in specific fields: automotive engineering, currently Dan Sperling; science, agriculture, or law, currently John Eisenhut; medicine, currently John R. Balmes, M.D.

The first Chair of CARB was Dr. Arie Jan Haagen-Smit, who was previously a professor at the California Institute of Technology and started research into air pollution in 1948.

Dr. Haagen-Smit is credited with discovering the source of smog in California, which led to the development of air pollution controls and standards.

The division's technical support work provides a basis for clean air plans and CARB's regulatory programs.

[15] The CARB first adopted the Low-Emission Vehicle (LEV) Program standards in 1990 to address smog-forming pollutants,[16][17] which covered automobiles sold in California from 1994 through 2003.

[25] In 2005, the California State Assembly passed AB 1229, which required all new vehicles manufactured after January 1, 2009 to bear an Environmental Performance Label, which scored the emissions performance of the vehicle on two scales ranging between 1 (worst) and 10 (best): one for global warming (emissions of GHG such as N2O, CH4, air conditioning refrigerants, and CO2) and one for smog-forming compounds (non-methane organic gases (NMOG), NOx, and HC).

In general, the most stringent standards were applied to passenger cars and light-duty trucks with a LVW up to 3,750 lb (1,700 kg) (these "light" LDTs were later denoted LDT1 under LEV II).

[17] CARB adopted regulations for limits on greenhouse gas emissions in 2004 starting with the 2009 model year to support the direction provided by AB 1493.

[19][32] In the initial denial, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson stated the Clean Air Act was not "intended to allow California to promulgate state standards for emissions from new motor vehicles designed to address global climate change problems" and further, that he did not believe "the effects of climate change in California are compelling and extraordinary compared to the effects in the rest of the country.

[35] An update was issued in 2010 which allowed manufacturers to calculate GHG emissions using CAFE data; for conventionally powered vehicles, the contribution from the nitrous oxide and methane terms could be assumed to be 1.9 g/mi.

Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia have chosen to do so, and ten of those have additionally adopted the California Zero-Emission Vehicle regulations.

[47] Arizona and New Mexico had previously adopted California LEV regulations under Section 177, but later repealed those states' clean car standards in 2012[48] and 2013,[49] respectively.

[16] The focus of the 1990 rules (ZEV-90) was to meet air quality standards for ozone rather than the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Executive Order S-03-05 (2005) and Assembly Bills 1493 (2002) and 32 (2006) prompted CARB to reevaluate the ZEV program as last amended in 1996, which had been primarily concerned with reducing emissions of smog-forming pollutants.

[55][56][57] Since then, in September 2020 Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing that by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California will be zero-emission vehicles.

The order also directs Caltrans to develop near-term actions to encourage "an integrated, statewide rail and transit network" and infrastructure to support bicycles and pedestrians.

ACC II reiterated the aim to have all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emissions vehicles by 2035,[60] and was scheduled for consideration before CARB in June 2022.

[17]: 2–6, 2–7  Under LEV II (ZEV-99), the ZEV definition was updated to include precursor pollutants, but did not consider upstream emissions from power plants.

These percentages were calculated based on total production of passenger cars and light-duty trucks with a loaded vehicle weight (LVW) less than 3,750 lb (1,700 kg).

[71]: 6–7 In conjunction with relaxing the requirements in ZEV-96, CARB signed memoranda of agreement (MOAs) with the seven large scale manufacturers to begin rolling out demonstration fleets of ZEVs with limited public availability in the near term.

The EV1 was available only through a US$399 (equivalent to $780 in 2023)/month lease starting in December 1996; the initial markets were South Coast, San Diego, and Arizona, and expanded to Sacramento and the Bay Area.

The red sticker program began in 1994 when CARB adopted standards for emissions from two-stroke engines used primarily on dirt bikes.

Between 1998 and 2003, the red sticker program was refined allowing vehicles that did not meet peak ozone season standards to be operated only at specific times of the year.

[16][89] The standard is aimed to reduce the state’s dependence on petroleum, create a market for clean transportation technology, and stimulate the production and use of alternative, low-carbon fuels in California.

[95] The Antelope Valley Transit Authority has set a goal to be the first all-electric fleet by the end of 2018, ahead of the tightened regulations.

For more information about the regulation, visit the air cleaner regulation.On October 27, 2017 CARB broke ground on its new state-of-the-art Southern California headquarters.

Of those costs, $154 million comes from fines paid by Volkswagen for air quality violations related to the diesel car cheating case.

In 2015, engineers and technicians based at the Haagen-Smit Laboratory were instrumental in discovering the infamous VW diesel “defeat device,” leading to the largest emissions control violation settlement in national and California history.

There is also workspace for accommodating new test methods for future generations of vehicles, and space for developing enhanced on-board diagnostics and portable emissions measurement systems.