Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday he has not decided whether to allow California to keep a waiver that allows it to set its own fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas rules for cars and light trucks.
“We are working very closely with California on the issue,” Pruitt said during testimony before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “It’s important we work together to achieve a national standard.”
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., warned Pruitt to allow California to maintain its own rules.
“When it comes to California and vehicle standards, the concept of cooperative federalism all of a sudden doesn’t apply?” Matsui said, making light of Pruitt’s common refrain that he wants to give states more authority on environmental issues.
Pruitt announced this month that he is scrapping former President Barack Obama’s strict new fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas rules for cars and light trucks.
Pruitt said the Obama administration’s rules that set a 54-mile per gallon standard by 2025, up from the current average of 38.3 mpg, were “not appropriate” in light of recent automobile sales data 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 set up 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.
California could move to formally separate its rules from the national program if the EPA weakens the standards. That effectively would create two separate rules for automakers to follow when producing cars for sale in the U.S.
The states that follow California, including New York and Pennsylvania, account for roughly one-third of the nation’s auto market.
Pruitt on Thursday said he is still examining whether to allow California to keep its waiver, permitted by the federal Clean Air Act, to force the state to follow weaker standards.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has said he is prepared to sue the EPA if it relaxes the fuel-efficiency standards. California is the nation’s largest market for zero-emission electric vehicles, and is aiming to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent by 2030.
