Energy

The Trump Administration Is Going To The Mat With California Over Obama-Era Emissions Standards

REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

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Tim Pearce Energy Reporter
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Environmental Protections Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is set to announce a sharp reduction in auto-emissions standards set by the Obama administration, The New York Times reports.

While cheered by most auto manufactures, the move could land the administration in a court battle with California, one of the largest state-car markets in the U.S. Pruitt is expected to make the official announcement next week, opening a public comment period for the proposed rule change.

Under the 1970 Clean Air Act, California was granted a waiver to maintain separate environmental standards that are almost always more stringent than federal ones. Roughly a dozen other states, making up a third of the domestic car market, usually follow California’s lead on emissions related regulations.

Former President Barack Obama brought national standards in line with strict California standards. President Donald Trump and Pruitt have promised to roll those standards back, arguing the rules have become counterproductive, Bloomberg reports.

Emissions standards force carmakers to invest heavily in developing new technology to lower emissions and spend more time designing fuel efficiency into vehicles. The process generally makes vehicles more expensive to buy and discourages consumers from upgrading from old, less fuel-efficient cars.

The separate California standard could fracture the American car market in two, and car manufactures have yet to come up with a response should that happen. The legal fight brewing between Pruitt and California over the Clean Air Act waiver will determine whether the U.S. car market will be governed by one set of national standards or split by a separate set of standards set by California and followed by others.

Both California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Pruitt have signaled they are ready for the courtroom brawl.

“California is not the arbiter of these issues,” Pruitt told Bloomberg earlier this month. Obama used the California standards to model the national emissions regulations, “but [separate state standards] shouldn’t and can’t dictate to the rest of the country what these levels are going to be.”

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