How Trump’s new rules for cars would hit California — if they survive in court
The Trump administration has released revamped rules that would unravel strict Obama-era standards for tailpipe emissions and gas mileage in new cars and trucks and directly challenge California’s authority to determine its own emissions limits.
The long-anticipated proposal o ers a range of scenarios but singles out a preferred alternative: freezing fuel-e ciency standards in 2020 at an average 35 miles per gallon. It will almost certainly face a barrage of legal challenges, but any rollback would be a blow to California’s ambitions for limiting planet-warming greenhouse gases.
Reducing transportation emissions is a critical component of the state’s approach to climate change, a defining policy for California. Transportation accounts for nearly 40 percent of the state’s harmful air pollution, and existing state rules directly reduce tailpipe emissions, becoming more stringent over time.
As a practical matter, however, the proposed changes could languish in courts for years, allowing California to stay its course in the near term.
State o cials have vowed take aggressive legal action to prevent implementation of the new standards. California, along with dozens of other states, sued the administration in May, challenging the administration’s right to revisit the existing rules.
Gov. Jerry Brown, in a written statement Thursday, termed the proposed rollback a “reckless scheme” that would mean “motorists will pay more at the pump, get worse gas mileage and breathe dirtier air. California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible.”
The rules set at the end of the Obama administration require an average 45.4 miles per gallon by 2022 and more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. Standards differ by vehicle type and are more stringent for cars than for SUVs and light trucks.
Trump administration officials said the revised rules would make cars more affordable and safer for consumers. “More realistic standards will promote a healthy economy by bringing newer, safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles to U.S. roads,” Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao said in a statement.
The proposal, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are open to negotiation, and at least one federal official left the door open for compromise. EPA assistant administrator Bill Wehrum said, “We are committed to working with California to try to find a mutually agreeable set of regulations,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The proposal will undergo 60 days of public comment before being finalized.
Of the many dozen skirmishes between Washington and Sacramento, the emissions revisions are among the most contentious, touching on one of the state’s most intractable problems: air pollution.
Mary Nichols, who chairs the state Air Resources Board, echoed Brown’s defiant tone.