EPA to let California set car pollution rules
WASHINGTON – California’s ambition to retake the lead on climate change policy in the United States received a major boost on Monday as the Biden administration moved toward allowing the state to once more set its own car pollution standards, a right revoked under former President Donald Trump.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is reviewing a major Trump-era action that blocked California’s legal authority to set tailpipe emission standards for cars and SUVs that are tougher than federal regulations. After seeking the public’s input, as required by law, the agency intends to rescind the Trump administration’s decision, a spokesman for the agency said.
The EPA’s action has national significance as transportation remains the largest source of planet-warming emissions in the United States, and California, with nearly 40 million people, is the country’s largest auto market. The state’s unique ability to set its own car pollution rules has influenced federal policy for decades, leading to stricter nationwide standards.
Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia follow California’s morestringent standards, altogether accounting for nearly 40% of auto sales in the United States. A smaller number have also signed on to the state’s mandate that automakers produce more zero-emission vehicles.
The agency’s action was widely expected — and eagerly anticipated by state officials and environmentalists. Over the last five decades, every former president except for George W. Bush and Trump accepted California’s power to set its own tailpipe pollution rules under the 1970 Clean Air Act.
California’s special authority dates to the 1960s, when state officials acknowledged the smog enveloping Southern California as a public health crisis. By the time the federal government began to take an interest in enacting tailpipe emissions controls, California had already taken the lead. Concerned that each state would pass different regulations, Congress gave the EPA the authority to set vehicle emissions standards for the nation, but it carved out an exception for California. Under the law, the EPA would be required to give the state a waiver allowing it to enforce its own rules, provided they were at least as tough as the federal ones.
The legal waiver granting California this power has historically served as the foundation for the state’s role as an environmental leader in reducing car pollution and improving air quality. It has also allowed the state to play an outsized role in accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles by empowering officials to require that automakers produce more of them if they wanted access to the California market.
The Biden administration has begun talks with automakers to replace the weaker standards put in place under
Trump with a new set of rules that would run through 2025. Restoring California’s authority to write its own standards would give state officials a seat at those talks and could pressure car companies to agree to more stringent rules.
“The Biden administration surely expects California to play our historic role as the left flank,” said Mary Nichols, who served as California’s top clean air regulator for more than a decade before stepping down last year. With California and the states that follow its standards empowered to enforce tougher rules, she said, the EPA can stake out a moderate position, knowing the auto industry will still have to satisfy these states.
Frustrated by the Trump administration’s plans to roll back car pollution regulations, Nichols brokered a deal in 2019 with five automakers to reduce auto emissions — regardless of what the federal government did. The Biden administration is expected to use that agreement as a model for its talks with car manufacturers.