GM has reversed course on its emissions policy, saying it now recognizes California's authority to set its own vehicle pollution standards..
GM has reversed course on its emissions policy, saying it now recognizes California's authority to set its own vehicle pollution standards, TechCrunch as reported. Previously, the automaker backed efforts by the former Trump administration to force the state to abandon its own standards in favor of federal emissions policies. However, it began to reverse course shortly after Biden was elected president, pulling out of the Trump administration's lawsuit against the state.
As the most populous state with the strictest rules, California generally sets the emissions agenda for automakers and other states. Back in 2018, however, the Trump administration challenged California's ability to set its own rules independently from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Volkswagen, BMW, Ford and Honda agreed to work with California on voluntary targets, but GM, along with Fiat Chrysler and Toyota, sided with the Trump administration.
"[GM] is committed to emissions reductions that are aligned with the California Air Resources Board's targets and... complying with California's regulations," GM VP Omar Vargas wrote in a letter to California governor Gavin Newsom.
The Trump administration formally submitted its plan to permit more tailpipe emissions, moving closer to a legal clash that could split the nation’s auto market.
Fulfilling a promise to the auto industry, last May Trump’s EPA proposed the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficiency (SAFE) Vehicles Rule. As the EPA’s inclusion of the word “Affordable” in a supposed environmental regulation makes clear, Trump is again decreasing environmental protection in the name of corporate profits. The SAFE Rule will roll back regulations that require auto manufacturers to meet clean air standards and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their vehicles:
“The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday submitted its proposal to roll back climate change rules that required automakers to nearly double the fuel economy of passenger vehicles to an average of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. The rules, which would have significantly lowered the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, were opposed by automakers who said they were overly burdensome.”
The EPA formally published its proposed rule in August, with the minimum comment period and public hearings. Dozens of individuals, organizations, and state and local government entities requested an extension of the comment period and additional hearings due to “the breadth and depth of the record to review” and “the changes from prior analyses conducted on the same topic,” not to mention its importance. The EPA denied all requests, explicitly stating that it preferred to give maximum response time to the auto manufacturers, rather than to the concerned public:
“Automakers will need maximum lead time to respond to the final rule, and extending the comment period and holding additional public hearings (which would also cause the comment period to be extended) are inconsistent with provision of maximum lead time.”
(The EPA did, however, grant a three-day extension in response to someone pointing out that its original deadline violated federal law.)
So why hasn’t the SAFE rule gone into effect yet? The usual fly in Trump’s anti-environmental ointment: California.
It is no secret that, while Trump dislikes everyone who does not give him full-throated support and loyalty, he reserves a special hatred for California. California has publicly opposed Trump and his policies from literally the day after the election. Some examples:
Trump is a climate change denier; California leads the country in restricting greenhouse gas emissions and producing clean energy from alternative sources.
Trump is anti-immigrant; California is a “sanctuary state.”
Trump slashed taxes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, and cuts federal programs that help ordinary citizens; California has a $15/hour minimum wage, and raised taxes to fund education.
Trump ordered states to send their National Guard troops to the southern border; California redeployed most of them elsewhere.
Trump ordered states not to pay unemployment benefits to furloughed federal workers during his recent tantrum government shutdown; California paid them anyway.
It particularly rankles Trump that California, with its policies diametrically opposed to his, is consistently outperforming the rest of the country. So naturally Trump has tried to take his revenge on California whenever he can (so far unsuccessfully):
He sued California and tried to withhold federal funds unless California “voluntarily” assisted ICE... until federal judges told him he couldn’t legally do that.
He threatened to withhold federal emergency funds for fighting California’s wildfires.
Just three days ago, he canceled a $1 billion federal transportation grant to California and demanded the return of another $2.5 billion that California has already received, tying it directly to California filing suit against his so-called “emergency” declaration one day earlier:
“As I predicted, 16 states, led mostly by Open Border Democrats and the Radical Left, have filed a lawsuit in, of course, the 9th Circuit! California, the state that has wasted billions of dollars on their out of control Fast Train, with no hope of completion, seems in charge! The failed Fast Train project in California, where the cost overruns are becoming world record setting, is hundreds of times more expensive than the desperately needed Wall!”
Returning to the SAFE Rule: The 1970 Clean Air Act generally prohibits individual states from implementing their own vehicle emission standards. The Clean Air Act, however, also requires the EPA to
“...waive application of this section to any State which has adopted standards for the control of emissions from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines ... if the State determines that the State standards will be, in the aggregate, at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable Federal standards.”
For the past 50 years, California has consistently had more stringent standards than the federal government, and has routinely received these waivers. The most recent waiver, in 2013, exempted California’s Advanced Clean Car (ACC) program, Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) standards. The Clean Air Act also allows other states to adopt their own standards if “such standards are identical to the California standards for which a waiver has been granted.” At present, “Thirteen states follow California’s standards for cars sold in their borders, representing about 40 percent of the nation’s vehicle market.”
Now, automakers don’t want to have to manufacture two different kinds of vehicles, one for California and its followers and one for the rest of the country. So, as part of the new rule, the Trump administration decided to try to withdraw the EPA’s existing waiver. This would, of course, have led immediately to years of litigation. California and the Trump administration have therefore been trying to negotiate some sort of compromise instead.
As you might well guess, the supposed master deal-maker in the Oval Office has been as successful at this negotiation as he has been at pretty much every single negotiation he’s tried since taking office: it got absolutely nowhere. So yesterday--probably spurred by Trump’s vendetta against California for filing suit against his emergency declaration--the White House and the EPA unilaterally announced: “the Trump Administration has decided to discontinue discussions with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regarding the proposed Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule.”
Trump claims it’s all California’s fault, of course: “CARB has failed to put forward a productive alternative since the SAFE Vehicles Rule was proposed.” California begs to differ:
“Sessions between the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and CARB were not substantive and never progressed into the nitty-gritty of policy negotiations. ‘The administration broke off communications before Christmas and never responded to our suggested areas of compromise — or offered any compromise proposal at all. We concluded at that point that they were never serious about negotiating, and their public comments about California since then seem to underscore that point.’”
The EPA plans to finalize its new rules by April, including the attempted revocation of California’s waiver. See you in court, Donald!
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