Trump admin to revoke Obama-era vehicle pollution standards, sparks outrage from CA leaders
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed plans on Monday, April 2 to loosen the nation’s current standards for fuel economy which they consider “too high.”
If allowed to take effect, the Obama administration regulations would have required car manufacturers to double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to a minimum of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, a goal which EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said doesn’t “comport with reality.”
Part of the administration’s efforts to weakening the nation’s fuel economy regulations includes a push for automakers to manufacture more cars and SUVs which that relies on clean energy over fossil fuels.
“The Obama Administration’s determination was wrong,” said Pruitt in a statement released on Monday.
Generally, fuel economy standards are meant to ascertain the air quality to signal policymakers to establish climate initiatives to mitigate any signs of pollution.
The EPA specifically took aim at the state of California and called to revoke the state’s ability to implement stricter standards for fuel emissions than the rest of the country, a provision allowed under the federal Clean Air Act.
“Cooperative federalism doesn’t mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country,” Pruitt said.
This could prove to be an uphill battle for California, a state known for its commuter lifestyle and concerns over the environmental repercussions of its swelling fuel emissions.
Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not been shy in his disfavor for the Trump administration and its policies, condemned the EPA’s decision.
“Watch out for this belated April Fools’ Day trick. This cynical and meretricious abuse of power will poison our air and jeopardize the health of all Americans,” Brown said in a statement released Monday.
Last year when the EPA announced that it would take a one-year review at the current standards for gas emissions, Brown penned a letter to Pruitt in which he warned not to “put the interests of big oil ahead of clean air and politics ahead of science.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks the effects lobbying in public policy, Pruitt’s top political donors include Devon Energy, Koch Industries, Alliance Coal and Exxon Mobil, all top players in the oil industry who have fought against climate change initiatives.
Impact in LA
Los Angeles, a commuter city best known for its unyielding traffic and pollution problems, would be affected greatly. Because of the state’s own CAFE regulations, local and state lawmakers were able to gauge overall fuel emissions, which allowed them to create laws and programs to stymie the effects of vehicle emissions on the air quality.
“In a city where the car is king, nobody knows better than Angelenos the importance of more efficient vehicles to keep our air clean,” LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement released on Monday. “Thanks to the federal auto standards established by President Obama, we have seen tremendous progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Los Angeles. Today’s decision by the Trump administration takes our city and country backward in the movement away from fossil fuels.”
Garcetti also announced on Monday that he is leading an alliance of U.S. mayors in denouncing the EPA’s plan. As a co-founder of Climate Mayors — a coalition of more than 400 U.S. mayors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to support climate change policy — Garcetti has actively made motor sustainability a major citywide initiative.
To adhere to state standards to reduce fuel emissions, the city of LA has established strict electric vehicle procurement policies, requiring that at every year at least half of all new municipal vehicles must be electric.
LA is also the founding signatory to the C40 Clean Bus Declaration and the Fossil Fuel Free Street Declaration which promises to procure emission-free buses by 2025 with the plan to have “a 100 percent zero emissions bus fleet by 2030,” according to a statement.
Since Trump was elected, his administration has been criticized for its efforts to roll back climate change initiatives established by the Obama administration. Last year, he received pushback for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, a United Nation framework in which all agreeing countries plans and regularly reports its own contributions to mitigate global warming.
Pruitt under fire for use of taxpayer dollars
However, the new standards may take some time to come into effect as Pruitt’s post is in jeopardy amid several corruption scandals over finances. Among the ballooning scandals, Pruitt reportedly rented a luxury townhouse co-owned by the wife of a top gas industry lobbyist, a major ethical concern given his position at the EPA, according to a recent ABC News report.
“I don’t know how you survive this one, and if he has to go, it’s because he never should have been there in the first place,” former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on ABC on Sunday.
Pruitt — who was previously the attorney general of Oklahoma — is also under scrutiny for reportedly using taxpayer dollars for $2,000 first-class flights to his home state and often stays at luxury hotels, according to a report from The Washington Post.
