Automobile mileage maelstrom brews

U.S. standards rollback would lead Calif. to sue

A possible clash between the U.S. government and California over future fuel-economy standards raises the question of whether automakers one day might have to build different sets of the same vehicles for parts of the nation.

Though automakers pushed the Trump administration to loosen standards, they will work to avoid such a costly and complicated scenario, one that probably would raise the price of cars prices as the companies pass some of those costs along to consumers, analysts said.

“Automakers do not want to build two sets of cars, for sure,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis at Edmunds.com.

Still, there is a good chance that the Environmental Protection Agency and California could be locked in court for years over the EPA’s expected plan to scale back mileage targets that the Obama administration drafted in tandem with California.

Automakers wanted the government to relax the current standards, which were imposed by the Obama administration to combat climate change. They say the rules will cost the industry billions of dollars and raise vehicle prices.

The targets aimed to boost average fuel economy for passenger cars and sport utility vehicles to 55 miles per gallon by 2025. But the agency plans to replace those targets with a weaker standard that would be announced soon, according to people familiar with the plans.

Officials in California, whose standards have been adopted by a dozen other states, said the state would challenge any rollback by the EPA.

“California has its own authority under the Clean Air Act to fight pollution,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement Friday. The EPA’s plan “will create confusion for the industry because manufacturers will have to meet two separate standards,” she said. “The years of litigation and investment uncertainty will be far harder on the auto industry than simply living up to the fuel-economy standards they once embraced.”

Assuming California prevailed in court, “if we got to two standards, the consumer is going to suffer,” said Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “Nobody wins, including the environment, in this scenario.”

J. David Ake The Associated Press Traffic streaks along U.S. Highway 50 in Arlington, Va. The Trump administration is expected to announce that it will roll back automobile gas mileage and pollution standards that were approved during the Obama administration.