President Donald Trump said Sept. 18 that his administration is revoking California's legal authority to set greenhouse gas emissions rules for vehicles that are tougher than federal standards, opening a new front in an already messy legal battle with the state.
Trump made the announcement in a series of tweets shortly before he was scheduled to speak at a fundraiser in Los Angeles. "The Trump Administration is revoking California's federal waiver on emissions in order to produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER."
The move comes after four major automakers — Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Volkswagen AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG — in July reached a voluntary deal to follow California's vehicle rules, which are only slightly less strict than Obama-era vehicle standards the Trump administration is now seeking to roll back. Those automakers, which collectively represent about 30% of the U.S. auto fleet, are also now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for potential antitrust violations.
At issue is California's authority to seek a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Section 209 of the Clean Air Act so the state can set its own strict vehicle standards to control harmful smog- and soot-driven air pollution.
Since the waiver was first enacted as part of the statute in 1967, the EPA has granted more than 50 waivers to the state — most recently in 2013 under the Obama administration. The waiver provision was originally established because California's own regulations to combat the harmful effects of air pollution predated the Clean Air Act. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia now follow California's standards, with some of them including the requirements as part of their state implementation plans to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for soot and smog pollution.
In August 2018, however, the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Association proposed to revoke California's Section 209 waiver as part of a broader rulemaking. That proposal, dubbed the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles, or SAFE, rule, was unveiled following former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's determination that Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards for cars and light-duty trucks reaffirmed by the Obama administration in January 2017 were inappropriate.
Under a deal the Obama administration reached with California and the auto industry in 2010, the tougher CAFE standards would have ratcheted up to about 54.5 miles per gallon by model year 2025. In contrast, the SAFE rule would freeze standards for cars and light-duty trucks at 37 miles per gallon for six years starting with model year 2020. Real-world fuel economy values, such as those stated on a new vehicle's window sticker, are lower than laboratory values used for CAFE, with some estimating that difference to be about 20%.
Top Trump administration officials have repeatedly argued that the weaker standards will reduce the sticker price of new vehicles and therefore save lives by encouraging drivers to scrap their older vehicles for new, safer models. However, that claim has been disputed by EPA career staff's own analysis of the proposal, which estimated that it would actually increase vehicle-related fatalities and lead to thousands of job losses.
California is already suing the Trump administration over its determination that the Obama-era standards were inappropriate and is poised to challenge the SAFE rule after it is finalized.
Among their justifications for revoking California's waiver, the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Association have proposed to find that the state's greenhouse gas and zero-emission vehicle standards are preempted by the federal Energy Policy Conservation Act. The EPA also stated in the proposal that it no longer believes that California's greenhouse gas standards are consistent with the Clean Air Act because they are technically infeasible.
The EPA did not respond Sept. 18 to a request for additional information regarding Trump's announcement. However, the agency's press office did release a media advisory announcing a Sept. 19 press event in Washington, D.C., featuring EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The event was billed as a "major policy announcement."
Speaking at a news conference, California Gov. Gavin Newsom noted Sept. 18 that the transportation sector is now the largest source of planet-warming emissions in the U.S. "You can't get serious about climate change if you don't get serious about vehicle emissions," the Democrat said.
Newsom also juxtaposed the Trump administration's effort to weaken fuel efficiency standards against a major disruption in global oil supplies following an attack on Saudi Arabia's refining infrastructure. "Here we are on the precipice of more unrest in the Middle East at a time when we've yet again been exposed for our deep dependence on foreign oil that now has a trajectory to get us back into conflict," he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., the ranking member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, predicted the Trump administration's attempt to revoke California's waiver will lead to more regulatory uncertainty. "After the dust settles, this revocation's first stop will likely be in federal court — where years of litigation will begin, creating regulatory confusion and miring the automotive industry in economic disarray," he said Sept. 18 in a statement.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Sept. 18 that he is confident the state will prevail in court, but he declined to say exactly how his office plans to respond given the lack of details surrounding Trump's announcement. "We're hearing obviously a number of things, and we're preparing to defend what we and the federal government have been doing for some 50 years."
