Published
4 years agoon
There are dozens of cross-continental disputes between the Trump administration in Washington and California’s Democrat-dominated state government, most manifesting themselves in lawsuits.
After Donald Trump was elected in 2016, the industry appealed for a respite from the 2025 standards and he agreed, thus setting up the conflict with California and other states that had voluntarily followed the state’s lead.
In fact, Trump’s Environmental Protection Administration went further than automakers had wanted. While the automakers sought relaxed mileage targets and more flexibility in meeting them, Trump’s EPA pushed for a complete rollback, freezing the 2020 standard of 37 miles per gallon.
California and 16 other states sued, and the automakers found themselves caught in the middle of another federal-state conflict, pleading for a compromise.
However, fitful talks on a compromise have broken down with each side accusing the other of refusing to make a good faith effort.
The White House says it is “moving forward to finalize a rule with the goal of promoting safer, cleaner, more affordable vehicles.”
“Federalism does not mean that one state can dictate the standard for the entire nation,” EPA director Andrew Wheeler said during the Washington Auto Show in April. “I met with CARB three times since taking the helm of EPA last July, but despite our best efforts, we could not reach a solution and decided to end the discussions.”
Mary Nichols, who chairs the California ARB, has chastised the auto industry for opening the can of worms, suggesting that if the conflict continues, California might just ban sales of cars powered by gasoline or diesel fuel.
Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He has written more than 9,000 columns about the state and its politics and is the founding editor of the “California Political Almanac.” Dan has also been a frequent guest on national television news shows, commenting on California issues and policies.
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