Chris White Tech Reporter
September 18, 2019 12:08 PM ET
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday his move to end California’s authority to craft emission regulations that are stricter than federal rules, a move that comes as the president continues to roll back Obama-era regulations.
Trump said removing a waiver will make vehicles safer and less expensive.
“The Trump Administration is revoking California’s Federal Waiver on emissions in order to produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER,” the president said on Twitter.
The Trump Administration is revoking California’s Federal Waiver on emissions in order to produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER. This will lead to more production because of this pricing and safety……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
“This will lead to more production because of this pricing and safety … advantage, and also due to the fact that older, highly polluting cars, will be replaced by new, extremely environmentally friendly cars,” Trump wrote.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who’s been a thorn in Trump’s hide, said the state will continue to fight such moves.
“While the White House clings to the past, automakers and American families embrace cleaner cars,” Becerra told reporters Tuesday, The New York Times reported. He noted that clean cars are “achievable, science-based, and a boon for hardworking American families and public health.”
Becerra has sued the administration more than 50 times since 2017. Much of the litigation is designed to hit Trump’s environmental rollbacks.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks about President Trump’s proposal to weaken national greenhouse gas emission and fuel efficiency regulations, at a media conference in Los Angeles, Aug. 2, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Trump’s move comes after months of speculation. Neither the White House nor the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. (RELATED: California To Sue Trump For Nixing State’s Ability To Set Fuel Emission Standards)
The administration unveiled a draft plan in 2018 to roll back the federal fuel economy standards the Obama administration put in place. The draft included a plan to revoke a waiver given to California under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which allows it to set tougher state-level standards.
Former President Barack Obama raised the average fuel economy of automobiles to 54.5 mpg by 2025. California got permission from the Obama administration to issue its own, higher emissions standards.
The Trump administration, for its part, first proposed in 2018 freezing fuel economy standards at 37 mpg in 2020. The EPA and Department of Transportation estimated the freeze would save $500 billion in societal costs and prevent around 1,000 traffic fatalities a year.
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Two questions from a non-American
(1) How does this move square with the plans to curb EPA excesses and hand powers BACK to state control?
(2) How would the CAFE limits be applied by individual states wanting their own (tougher) limits? Would it be an average of the mpg of all the cars a company sells in California, and would Cali try to restrict sales by automakers who don’t tow the California line at a national/international level? The consequences would be very different. California is the most populous state and has a helluvalot of power in the market.
Elimination of the California waiver is actually a rather simple, common-sense proposition. It helps if you remember the history of EPA regulation and the California waiver.
When the EPA was given the task of enacting regulations to clean up the air, they recognized that California had special problems due to its geography. Prevailing winds pushed the dirty air created by businesses and vehicles up against the mountains where it stayed, creating a brown smog ring that hung over the South Coast on most days. California was allowed to set more stringent emissions regulations in order to reduce the amount of smog in the air. Since the primary component of smog is sulfur dioxide, these special Calaifornia regulations concentrated on reducing SO2 emissions.
The EPA Tier IV requirements for mobile sources – both on and off road – have virtually eliminated sulfur from gasoline (30 ppm max) and diesel fuel (15 ppm max). As a result vehicles are no longer large contributors of SO2 and the resulting smog. Therefore, there is no longer a need for a California waiver relating to mobile vehicles.
However, California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) and its politicians have vastly expanded the authority they were given, passing regulations on things totally unrelated to poor air quality in the South Coast region. They have used this power to bully the Federal government and private businesses into increased fuel economy standards, the phase-out of incandescent lightbulbs, mandates for low-flush toilets, and dozens of other issues. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of the Trump administration’s rollbacks of nonsense regulations led by the California zealots.
I read or heard on the Mark Levin show that a study was done that CAFE standards have made much more deaths and injuries to people than guns every year in this country, because of the almost elimination of steel in the cars of today in order to make them much lighter to increase average gas mileage. I couldn’t locate the study, but if I find it I will post it on here on WUWT.
And I’m not sure who did the study…
-JPP
California does have an environmental problem with local pollution, but they want the rest of the US to pay to correct and prevent it. If I’m not mistaken, part of the smog/ozone issue with places like San Francisco and LA is that the weather patterns trap the exhaust and it just keeps on building.
Now, Cali wants cleaner air, I want them to have clean air, but their weather patterns don’t promote fresh air in, so they mandate to the car companies that all of the cars sold in Cali MUST conform to certain standards. To recoup the expenses and to not loose the Cali market, the car companies comply. But that makes me pay for items that are not needed for my state.
What I suggest is that the owner/buyer of the vehicle pay that expense. What the car companies should do is make the vehicles to the federal standard. If someone wants to buy that vehicle in Cali, they must pay to have whatever upgrade is needed to achieve that regulation. If they buy it outside Cali, again, when they bring it into Cali, it must be upgraded.
Likewise, if I move into Cali and I own a 2016 vehicle, that vehicle should be modified to accommodate the 2016 standards in Cali, at MY expense. Cali can mandate items like that, if you want to register a vehicle in Cali, it must meet Cali standards for that year. OR MAYBE, they could add an ‘Exhaust Tax’ to your non-conforming car, that way they can plant trees to offset the emissions. Almost like Indulgences of yesteryear (and these current years with Liberals and AGW)…
I wonder if this will effectively overturn California’s unilateral implementation of EPA GHG regulations on trailers (manufactured in California)? EPA was blocked at the federal level by a federal court because the original legislation only specified the truck (tractor) and did not specify the trailer. California unilaterally applied this to trailers manufactured in California, and I do not know if this required any type of waiver.