EPA letter warns California

WASHINGTON — The political feud between California and President Donald Trump’s administration escalated Monday with a letter from Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, warning that Washington would withhold federal highway funds from the state if it did not rapidly address a decades-long backlog of state-level pollution control plans.

Wheeler’s letter states that California “has the worst air quality in the United States,” including 82 areas within the state with air quality that does not meet federal law. It says that by law, the state is required to submit plans for reducing that pollution, but that California has a backlog of about 130 incomplete or inactive plans, “many dating back decades.”

The letter notes that California has more than 34 million people living in areas that do not meet federal air pollution standards for pollutants like soot and smog — “more than twice as many people as any other state in the country.”

Wheeler says in the letter that he is calling attention to California’s backlog as part of a broader effort to “dramatically reduce” such backlogs nationally.

He says that California’s failure to address the backlogged plans may result in penalties such as the withholding of federal highway funds, or the implementation of federal plans.

The letter requests a response from the state by Oct. 10.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the EPA administrator’s letter pure politics. “The White House has no interest in helping California comply with the Clean Air Act to improve the health and well-being of Californians,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “This letter is a threat of pure retaliation. While the White House tries to bully us and concoct new ways to make our air dirtier, California is defending our state’s clean air laws from President Trump’s attacks. We won’t go back to the days when our air was the color of mud. We won’t relive entire summers when spending time outside amounted to a public health risk. We won’t be intimidated by this brazen political stunt.”

The letter, made public Monday but dated Sept. 24, was first reported by The Sacramento Bee. A spokesman for the White House referred questions to the EPA, and a spokesman for the agency did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The letter follows Trump’s announcement last week that his administration would revoke California’s legal authority to set its own stringent state-level regulations on planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes.