CPR: The Trump administration is on the brink of what could prove its most consequential legal battle with the state of California, with EPA chief Scott Pruitt expected this week to take aim at the autonomy that state leaders were given in the 1970 Clean Air Act to establish pollution standards for vehicles that are more far-reaching than the federal government’s. This autonomy is widely credited with the Golden State’s emergence as a world leader in environmental regulation.
Last week saw confirmation of months of White House and EPA leaks that President Donald Trump would throw out a 2012 Obama administration edict that required average miles per gallon to nearly double to 54.5 for automakers’ fleets of new cars and trucks by 2025. Trump’s skepticism about climate change made him particularly open to the argument from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler that out-of-touch regulators under the previous president were trying to force them to sell vehicles that U.S. consumers didn’t want to buy.
But as The New York Times reported over the weekend, Trump and Pruitt went further than automakers wanted both by rolling back mileage standards more than expected and by signalling their readiness for a court fight over the deference that federal regulators have traditionally shown to the California Air Resources Board.
The Golden State’s problems with smog in the Los Angeles Basin – visible in the 1973 EPA photo shown above – led to the first state law in the U.S. targeting air pollution being adopted in 1947, among many other precedent-setting regulations. The air board continued California’s role as a pioneer in setting vehicle emission standards after it was launched in 1968 under then-Gov. Ronald Reagan. Its vehicle emission and safety rules often end up being copied by Congress and federal regulators and by nations around the world. The state’s present rules are followed by 12 other states, including New York and Pennsylvania – meaning the Golden State dictates what automakers must provide in about one-third of all new cars sold in the U.S. each year. MORE
This could be a beautiful thing. Unleash the diesel car manufacturers and MPG goes up hugely , then the ethanol lobby gets cut off at the knees…..Food prices could go down because of too much corn and beef prices fall as well…..Manufacturing returns to the midwest….. Give me less expensive well marbled ribeye steaks and bring dark beer or a festive cabernet….we’ll barbecue….
What wgg said ^^
Corn belongs on your plate or in your Sour Mash.
Not in your gas tank.
….and Oh Yeah, farmers are gonna bitch about the loss of corn prices, but they also grow soy beans and soy beans could make an excellent diesel fuel as well as Tofu to the orient….it’s a win-win. Just gotta convince the whiners…
And the sound of all the heads exploding in California will be music to our ears!
I hope they start getting rid of some of the regulations on home building, too; especially so-called “green” regulations that haven’t been proved-out to be energy efficient or are a wash. The only ones getting the green on a lot of this stuff are state/fed regulators.
Like many of CA’s regulations, states borrow their template because they are state money makers and have little to do with energy or the environment.
California has held the country hostage long enough. Time they got SwAT-ed.
What the hell kind of LOGO is that?
Will, I know, right? They probably paid someone 10 grand for it, too.
What the hell kind of LOGO is that?
Looks like a half yin-yang, muslim crescent combo being impaled by a chopstick. Yeah, that evokes *environment* for me… /s
Hey! What happened to EDIT?
Anyway, Mr. Obvious here just figured out that it’s supposed to be a leaf.
@willysgoatgruff:
Not putting soy into my diesel; just look at what it did to all those sissy boys in California!
I just wish I had a giant saw. …..Lady in Red