Reverse shift on pollution

With an expected relaxation of vehicle emissions rules, President Trump apparently hopes to open another front in his war on California while catering to carmakers at the expense of everyone’s health and climate. But the move could hurt the corporations it means to help by fostering uncertainty, inviting a patchwork of requirements, and encouraging them to cling to the business models of yesteryear.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, who interprets his department’s stated mission as loosely as he does ethical standards, is expected to announce within the next few days that fuel efficiency requirements set by California and the Obama administration — namely, those requiring new cars to get an average of 50 miles per gallon of gas by 2025 — go too far. In their zeal to incrementally promote the radical causes of breathable air and a stable climate, according to Pruitt’s analysis, the current rules could cause auto manufacturers undue discomfort.

The manufacturers apparently hope to soften the rules nationwide and then persuade other countries, many of which have taken more aggressive steps toward fossil-fuel-free transportation, to follow the United States’ backward lead. The trouble is that California Democrats are as eager to do battle on the issue as Washington Republicans. Barring a compromise, which would be the better approach, that portends either dueling standards or a protracted legal standoff over whether California must comply. Neither would be particularly good for the American auto sector.

Forcing California into submission would entail undoing the state’s longstanding dispensation under the 1970 Clean Air Act to maintain more stringent standards to deal with its extraordinary pollution. States encompassing about a third of the nation’s population and auto market eventually followed California’s lead, as did the federal government under President Barack Obama.

Amid rapid advances in automotive technology and dwindling opportunities to tackle climate change, Trump and Pruitt are pushing to protect the state’s primary source of air pollution — and to keep the nation and its auto industry in the global rearview.