New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump for rolling back his Democratic predecessor’s fuel efficiency standards.
Eric Schneiderman, who many believe to be one of Trump’s most bitter critics, is suing the president for delaying a rule forcing automakers to meet or exceed fuel efficiency standards. He is joining a slew of his Democratic counterparts in the lawsuit.
“Fuel efficiency standards are common sense, protecting Americans pocketbooks and reducing the emissions that undermine public health and drive climate change,” he wrote in a press statement announcing his decision.
Trump “again and again” sides against “New Yorkers and our environment,” Schneiderman noted, adding that he and his fellow AGs will act against the president when “those we serve are put at risk.”
The Trump administration took the initial steps in August toward rolling back former President Barack Obama’s vehicle emission standards. The auto industry celebrated the decision to reopen the emission standards rules.
Industry stakeholders have argued the rules place an undue burden on auto manufacturers struggling to meet emission standards amid low gas prices and lagging biofuel production. They believe the standards could potentially destroy thousands of jobs.
Chief executives at GM, Ford Motor, Fiat, along with executives at Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and others believe the rule could “threaten future production levels, putting hundreds of thousands and perhaps as many as a million jobs at risk,” the executives told Trump in March
Environmentalists believe the rules, which require automakers to double the average fuel efficiency of car and truck fleets to an eye-popping 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, help lessen fuel costs for customers and help the U.S. to fight climate change.
Auto-dealers, meanwhile, say the rules could cost consumers. Mark Scarpelli, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, told an audience at a January auto-dealer conference that the technology needed to improve fuel efficiency could add as much as $3,000 to a car’s price tag.
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