The Trump administration’s threat to strip California’s unique authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards has struck a nerve with leaders of the progressive state, which views itself as the nationwide trend setter in making cars cleaner.
But the Trump administration is equally determined to force California and other blue states to get with its preferred national program, with weaker standards that it says would save money for drivers everywhere and prevent car accidents.
“You have to remember this only a proposal, and the Trump administration and California have both made it quite clear they are continuing to talk to see if they can find common ground,” said Jeff Holmstead, a former deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the George W. Bush administration. “California has an incentive to be flexible and come up with something that maintains a 50-state approach without litigation over the waiver.”
Other experts say a deal is unlikely as both sides aggressively defend their position, a tension that could foreshadow a lengthy legal battle all the way up to the Supreme Court.
“What has been clear is the Trump administration seems to want to pick this fight,” said Dave Cooke, a senior vehicle analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Threatening to revoke the waiver puts the breaks on negotiations. I don’t know how this leads to anything productive in terms of a negotiating a solution.”
The Trump administration on Thursday proposed to freeze fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions targets at 2020 levels through 2026, instead of raising them each year as previously required by the Obama administration.
In its proposal, the Trump administration makes a legal argument for revoking California’s waiver that allows it to set its own tougher fuel efficiency rules that other states can follow.
It also wants to nullify California’s zero-emission vehicle program that requires automakers to sell more electric and hybrid cars.
A dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, that follow California’s rules together account for more than a third of the nation’s auto market.
Since 1967, Congress has allowed California to set its own fuel efficiency regulations, tougher than the national standards, because of severe local problems with smog. It was the first state to regulate emissions from cars.
California officials say the state’s early action, which proceeded any national effort to combat car pollution, helped inspire automakers to make vehicles cleaner.
For example, the state helped to propel the use of the catalytic converter, which transforms tailpipe pollutants into less harmful gases, and the modern, more efficient vehicle engine.
“California policy has jump-started this technological innovation by pushing the envelope, and taking away its waiver would threaten new innovations such as electric vehicles,” said David Vogel, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who studies the state’s environmental history.
But the Trump administration argues previous administrations have been wrong to consistently grant subsequent waivers to California under the 1970 Clean Air Act allowing the state to set tailpipe standards to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
It says that, while California is right to have special power to regulate its smog problem, climate change is different because it doesn’t affect California more than any other state.
“There’s nothing about how greenhouse gases and potential climate change affects California that’s any different than any other state in the country,” EPA Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum told reporters Thursday. “Only under extraordinary circumstances is California able to implement its own tailpipe standards.”
California officials say the state still faces severe air pollution, with some of the worst ozone problems in the country. It also is feeling the effects of climate change, shown by severe droughts and wildfires.
“We’ve still got work to do,” said Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, in a Twitter post on Thursday. “That’s why California will not back down.”
The Trump administration also argues the EPA is not able to use the Clean Air Act to give California special authority because it contradicts a 1975 law that gave the Department of Transportation the sole power to set fuel economy standards.
Two federal court cases, both from 2007, have rejected the concept that the Department of Transportation’s fuel economy standards preempt California’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The courts said that regulating greenhouse gas emissions to protect public health is not the same as increasing energy efficiency with fuel economy standards.
But proponents of the Trump argument say the legal question is not settled, because the federal government and California negotiated a compromise before the cases could be appealed.
The Clean Air Act does not expressly say if the EPA has the authority to revoke waivers it has already granted.
“The legal arguments the administration would use to revoke the waiver are pretty strong,” Holmstead said. “I know California doesn’t agree with that in public, but privately, they know there is a risk the Supreme Court would say California doesn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars with its own program.”
