The Trump administration has launched a multipronged legal assault on an agreement California struck with four carmakers in defiance of the president’s plan to ease national standards on tailpipe emissions.
Lawyers from the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency on Friday sent a letter to California’s top air-pollution regulator, urging the state to abandon its pact with the automakers and warning that actions to carry out the agreement “appear to be unlawful and invalid.”
Separately, the Justice Department has opened an antitrust probe into the deal, in which four automakers agreed on compromise tailpipe emissions requirements with California. The administration is also preparing to formally strip California’s authority to set auto efficiency regulations that are tougher than the federal government’s, according to people familiar with the matter.