California’s 82nd lawsuit against the Trump administration seeks to restore clean car rules
California and 22 other states filed a new lawsuit Wednesday challenging the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama-era clean air rules that required car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency.
The lawsuit is the latest battle an ongoing legal feud between a coalition of Democratic states and the president, who has pushed to weaken or overturn his predecessor’s environmental policies throughout his term.
The Trump administration’s new regulation allows lowers a fuel efficiency standard that was supported by California and adopted by the Obama administration. It would allow American cars to emit nearly 900 million more tons of carbon dioxide over vehicles’ lifetimes, according to the administration’s draft final rule.
President Trump has asserted the regulation will reduce consumer costs and save lives making cars safer. But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his counterparts in Colorado and Michigan plan to cite internal EPA documents to argue that it does just the opposite, the three attorneys general said on Wednesday.
“[The rule] is a job-killer and public health hazard,” Becerra said. “It will increase costs to consumers and allow the emission of dangerous pollutants that directly threaten the health of our families. President Trump should have listened to his own scientists.”
California has filed 82 lawsuits against the Trump administration, the majority of which concern environmental regulations. In September, California filed suit against the administration for revoking the state’s authority to set its own emissions standards, which 13 other states have adopted.
In July, four large automakers — representing 30 percent of the market — sided with California and committed to Obama-era targets.
Obama’s Clean Car Standards — the first federal policy limiting greenhouse gas emissions — required automakers to improve fuel efficiency by 5 percent each year. Trump’s rule, Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles, reduces that requirement to 1.5 percent per year. Without regulation, the industry achieves 2.4 percent improvement annually, according to a letter from Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.).
In fall 2018, Becerra testified in defense of Clean Car Standards and criticized as “arbitrary” the administration’s findings that those standards were no longer appropriate. The EPA had recently affirmed the standards in its January 2017 midterm evaluation.
This most recent lawsuit will attack what Becerra calls “fuzzy math”: a reference to internal documents that reveal EPA staffers’ deliberations about Trump’s new regulation. The documents showed consumers could pay at the pump more than they’d save on vehicle costs.
Environmental advocates also say the rule change would have unhealthy consequences, leading to respiratory illnesses and premature deaths.
“Despite all the hype, this rule is a loss for America, as evidenced by their own analysis. Because of this change, we will breathe more polluted air, suffer more premature deaths and see a net loss of jobs in the automobile industry,” said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board.