Following the announcement from the Trump Administration this week that it would rescind California’s waiver to create its own vehicle emissions standards, state officials vowed to fight the action every step of the way.
“While the White House is abdicating its responsibility to the rest of the world on cutting emissions and fighting global warming, California is stepping up,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “In July, we came to landmark voluntary agreements with four major automakers to reduce vehicle emissions and oppose Washington’s rollback of clean air standards. We are showing it can be done. The President could learn from California. Instead, he is acting on a political vendetta by announcing his intention to end aspects of our clean car waiver. It’s a move that could have devastating consequences for our kids’ health and the air we breathe if California were to roll over. But we will not – we will fight this latest attempt and defend our clean car standards. California, global markets, and Mother Nature will prevail.”
The federal Clean Air Act gives states like California the right to set their own vehicle emissions standards so long as they are at least as protective as federal standards. Waivers can be granted from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow this, which in California’s case, it has done so more than 100 times over the past 50 years.
In 2012, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted an Advanced Clean Car Program designed to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution, and increase miles to the gallon, on vehicles for model years 2017 through 2025. In 2013, the EPA granted California a waiver for this program, which 13 other states and the District of Columbia have since adopted in at least some part.
“To those who claim to support states’ rights – don’t trample on ours,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. “In California, we can’t afford to backslide to the days of dirty air and unregulated emissions. For us, this is about survival. Our communities are screaming for help to address the new normal of devastating droughts and superstorms, wildfires and mudslides. Unlike the Trump Administration, we won’t run scared from global warming. And when you endanger our people, our economy, or our planet, we rise with the full force of the law behind us.”
The current EPA’s argument, backed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act preempts the approved waiver. California objects to this interpretation, saying it has already been rejected at many levels of government in the past.