California and 17 other states sued the Trump administration Tuesday for rejecting President Barack Obama’s tough fuel-efficiency rules and taking steps to weaken them.
“The world is not flat. Pollution is not free. And the health of our children and future is not for sale. That is why today California joined by 17 other states and the District of Columbia is taking action to stop [the Trump administration] from doing what 40-plus years of history taught us. We can clean our air for the benefit of our people and need not rollback achievements in order to make progress,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, in a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
Joining the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, are all other states who follow California’s tough fuel efficiency rules adopted by one-third of the U.S. auto market.
But states who do not use the stricter rules also are suing the Trump administration. Collectively, the states involved in the suit represent about 40 percent of the U.S. population.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced this month that he is scrapping Obama’s new fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas rules for cars and light trucks, saying the rules that set a 54-mile per gallon standard by 2025, up from the current average of 38.3 mpg, were “not appropriate” and should be revised.
He did not say what the new standards should be, but argued the Obama targets are “too high.”
Instead, Pruitt started a joint notice and public comment process with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop a new rule setting greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and light-duty trucks, such as pickups and sport utility vehicles, for model years 2022 to 2025.
The decision sparked a fight with California and 12 other states that had adopted the tougher Obama standards as a way of reducing man-made greenhouse emissions that many climate scientists say contribute to climate change.
The Trump administration, as part of the formal rulemaking process, is considering a proposal to freeze fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions targets at 2020 levels through 2025, according to multiple reports.
The proposal is the “preferred option” of one of several alternatives being considered by the EPA and National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, which are jointly drafting the rules.
The EPA is also prepared to challenge California over a Clean Air Act waiver it has that allows it to set its own standards, the New York Times and Washington Post reported.
Pruitt testified to the Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday that he has not decided whether to allow California to keep its waiver. And legal experts have questioned whether California and other states can sue the Trump administration before it actually sets new standards.
Becerra and other California officials argued Tuesday that the states can sue based on the EPA rejecting the Obama standards, which were agreed upon in 2011 by the federal government, the state of California, and automakers.
“We contend he [Pruitt] has formally acted,” Becerra said. “He has essentially thrown out the midterm evaluation that was done in a joint agreement between the federal government, California, and automakers. He has taken a step to undo what the parties agreed upon.”
The states contend the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which governs the rulemaking process, by not backing its rejection of the Obama standards with appropriate rationale and data.
EPA, in justifying the need for different standards, cited relatively low fuel prices that have made less fuel-efficient SUVs and light trucks more popular. Consumer demand for hybrid-electric and more fuel-efficient models has suffered, the EPA said, so automakers are having difficulty hitting the fuel-efficiency targets.
Becerra countered the Obama standards that California uses are “achievable and science-based.”
California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, rebuked Pruitt in personal terms for “attacking science.”
“This character in Washington with his expensive travel tastes and funny redecorating plans is running roughshod over the health of our people,” Brown said Tuesday at the press conference with Becerra, referring to Pruitt. “This move by Pruitt won’t make America great. It will make America second-rate and will jeopardize America’s auto industry.”
California’s emissions regulations are a key component in its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
Federal law allows California, because of severe air pollution problems caused by smog, to set its own fuel-efficiency regulations that can be tougher than the national standards. Other states can follow California’s standards instead of the national rules.
Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, which regulates tailpipe emissions in the state, promised California will continue to sue the Trump administration as it continues the process of revising the Obama-era fuel standards, and potentially, challenges the state on its waiver.
“We will sue at every step just to make sure they don’t get away with it,” Nichols said Tuesday.
An EPA spokeswoman declined to respond to the lawsuit, saying the agency “doesn’t comment on pending litigation.”
