California defends emissions standards
Don Arax, a high school football coach in Fresno, sometimes cancels practices because his players can’t breathe.
“We’re worried,” said the coach at Bullard High School. “About 25 percent of our kids are carrying inhalers now. I find empty inhalers all the time in the weight room and on the fields. We practice from 7 to 9 p.m. during the bad months. And my son’s elementary school keeps (students) inside because of air quality.”
At 53, the Fresno native says exhaust from passenger cars and trucks moving farm products through the California Central Valley has changed everyday life. “I used to always see the mountains. Now it’s a rare day when we see the mountains” — the Sierra Nevada about 50 miles to the east.
For athletic coaches, parents and economic development officials trying to attract business, air pollution remains a sensitive issue in California. Weather reports include forecasts for rain, heat and air quality that urge senior citizens and children to stay indoors to avoid respiratory dangers.
So when the Trump administration said on April 3 it plans to roll back Obama-era greenhouse gas and fuel emissions standards for cars and light trucks, California officials took note. What is an engineering debate in Detroit is a crucial health question in the state where one-eighth of the nation’s vehicles are sold.
California has authority under the Clean Air Act that allows it to set its own emissions standards, which are tougher than national standards. Twelve other states have adopted those standards and account for a third of the U.S. auto market.
The Trump administration action holds out the prospect of a legal battle to erase California’s waiver as automakers, represented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, advocate for “one national standard” — which could be read as wanting to eliminate California’s rules.
Arax’s players and the field littered with inhalers show why California will fight to maintain basic protections. Observers say the law is on the state’s side.
“It’s a ‘be careful what you wish for’ scenario,” said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association and a lawyer. “You don’t know where litigation is going to end up.”
Regulatory measures are designed to cut carbon dioxide and reduce air pollution. Tougher regulation is a global trend. But some U.S. politicians say Obama-era mandates should be relaxed.
Pruitt’s move
Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has taken up their cause.
“The Obama EPA’s determination was wrong,” Pruitt said in announcing the planned rollback. “Obama’s EPA cut the midterm evaluation process short with politically charged expediency, made assumptions about the standards that didn’t comport with reality and set the standards too high.”
In 2012, federal agencies, California and the auto industry agreed to raise average fuel economy for passenger cars to up to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Because of provisions in how the government measures emissions and fuel economy, that really works out to a combined city-highway rating of about 38 mpg.
After the negotiations, no one claimed victory. Everybody compromised.
California officials note there is one national program already — under the agreement, California standards equal federal standards. If those federal standards are rolled back, California and the 12 states will continue with the existing standards.
Automakers insist their push for flexibility and a single standard doesn’t mean they want to back off targets. They have produced more fuel-efficient vehicles that pollute less even as pickup sales soar. The consumer shift to pickups and SUVs as gas prices have remained low, in part because of the fracking boom, has limited sales of electric vehicles and efficient gas burners.
“Nobody is saying, ‘Let’s pollute the air more.’ The problem is the cost,” said Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst for Kelley Blue Book. “How do we get consumers to buy these vehicles? It’s going to get really expensive. When it comes to the fuel economy standard, I think manufacturers want relief, which isn’t to say they want to go back to gas-guzzling SUVs.”
However, analysts and manufacturers say, a fuel economy solution requires a collaborative style.
“We are not getting that from the top right now,” said Lindland, a committee member on the 2015 National Research Council report evaluating fuel economy technologies. “We have to plan in advance because production, vehicles, power trains — none of those decisions are flexible. They are decisive because of the nature of the investment.”
California flexibility
California’s top air regulator is open to giving automakers flexibility to comply with vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions rules even as her $1.6-billion state agency prepares to fight the Trump administration over vehicle pollution standards.
Mary Nichols, chair of the powerful California Air Resources Board, said in an interview with the Free Press she thinks California officials, automakers and the Trump administration can agree to revise and extend the standards.
“If there are ways to eliminate things that aren’t contributing to overall environmental performance, we’re absolutely open to talking about them,” Nichols said, noting that current rebates on lowemission vehicles are designed to move consumers and there’s potential for other effective strategies.