GOP recall hopeful fought car emissions rules as ’90s lobbyist

SACRAMENTO — As San Diego’s former mayor and now a leading Republican contender in California’s recall election, Kevin Faulconer has sought to portray himself as a GOP outlier on climate change.

Unlike some of his Republican rivals seeking to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom, Faulconer doesn’t express doubt that human activity is altering the planet’s atmosphere, and he has frequently touted his work passing San Diego’s first climate plan in 2015.

But that posture is a dramatic shift from a littleknown, earlier period in Faulconer’s career when he fought tougher fuelefficiency standards as a lobbyist for a group funded by the auto industry.

Public records from the late 1990s show Faulconer was paid to lobby Congress on behalf of the Coalition for Vehicle Choice, an organization created by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers that opposed legislation to reduce