California, along with 16 other states filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in federal appeals court which challenges the proposed EPA vehicle emissions rules and fuel efficiency regulations, calling the changes by the Trump administration “not appropriate”. Getty Images/Bloomberg photo by Jonathan Alcorn.
Changes to EPA vehicle emissions rules “an illegal act”: CA Gov. Jerry Brown
California and 16 other states filed a lawsuit in federal appeals court that challenges the Trump administration’s decision to declare EPA vehicle emissions rules and fuel efficiency guidelines through 2025 “not appropriate”.
On Tuesday in Sacramento, California Governor Jerry Brown announced the filing of the suit in District of Columbia court.
Brown and California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra call the EPA’s decision an “illegal act”. Becerra added “My message to the EPA and Administrator Pruitt is simple: Do your job. Regulate carbon pollution from vehicles”.
California is joined in the lawsuit by Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit comes after US Environmental Protection Agency’s head Scott Pruitt said the standards on model year 2022 to 2025 vehicles should be revised. This would reverse a January 2017 decision on higher standards implemented by former President Barack Obama in the final days of his presidency.
In 2012, Obama administration rules sought to double fleet-wide vehicle fuel efficiency averages to about 50 miles per gallon by 2025, but included an evaluation of the rules in 2018 to determine if the regulations were appropriate.
According to Reuters, the US Transportation Department has drafted a proposal which will likely be released publicly in May which freezing vehicle requirement at 2020 levels through 2026.
As well, the draft is expected to assert that a 1975 law prohibits California from imposing its own state emissions rules. For decades, California has imposed its own emissions laws, which due to the large number of car buyers in the state, have often driven national standards.
General Motors and Toyota say they want the federal government and California to reach an agreement to extend national standards.
Senator Tom Carper in a letter to Pruitt and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao argues that the current regulations are expected to hike fuel efficiency to a fleet-wide average of 46.8 miles per gallon by 2026.
Carper says that under the draft proposal he obtained, the Trump administration is in favour of freezing standards through 2026, resulting in a fleet-wide average of 37 mpg by 2026.
Prior to Brown’s announcement, California Air Resources Board chief Mary Nichols told Reuters that such a legal maneuver does not mean the state of California could not still try to come to an agreement with carmakers and the federal government.
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