California is expected to retaliate if the Environmental Protection Agency weakens fuel-efficiency rules for vehicles covering model years 2022–2025.
The EPA is expected to say this week that the Obama administration’s rules on fuel economy for cars and light-duty trucks, such as pickups and sport utility vehicles, must be revised for model years 2022-2025, although the agency won’t immediately propose new requirements.
The EPA, under Administrator Scott Pruitt, has long been expected to ease the rules, negotiated with the auto industry in 2011, that would require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
As a result, California, which can set its own fuel-efficiency standards, could move to formally separate its rules from the national program set in Washington.
California intends to revoke its “deemed to comply” provision, according to Bloomberg, which says that carmakers that satisfy the EPA’s emissions standards automatically fulfill California’s rules, too.
That basically means that California and other states that follow its tougher rules would require carmakers operating in those states to follow the more stringent state regulations, even if the EPA weakens the national standard.
If the national rules are weaker than state standards, automakers would face a patchwork of efficiency regulations.
Federal law since 1967 has allowed California, because of severe air pollution problems caused by smog, to set its own fuel efficiency regulations that are tougher than the national standards. Other states can follow California’s standards instead of the national rules. Those states account for about one-third of the U.S. auto market.
Stanley Young, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, told the Washington Examiner it is “troubled” by reports that the EPA is looking to weaken the standards, and says that doing so would jeopardize the viability of the national program.
“We are troubled about the rumors that the EPA has found the standards to be too aggressive and that they need to be weakened,” Young said. “California paved the way for a single national program and is fully committed to maintaining it. However, we feel that this rumored finding — if official — places that program in jeopardy. We feel strongly that weakening the program will waste fuel, increase emissions, and cost consumers more money.”
Pruitt has said he prefers to maintain “one national program” for vehicle-emissions rules and wants to avoid a legal battle with California.
Pruitt told Bloomberg this month that “California is not the arbiter of these issues,” and suggested the state should comply with the national standards.
California regulates greenhouse gas emissions at the state level, “but that shouldn’t and can’t dictate to the rest of the country what these levels are going to be,” he said.
