California guv blasts bill on auto-efficiency rules

Bloomberg

California Governor Jerry Brown criticized a US Senate bill that aims to simplify auto efficiency standards, warning the measure represents a step toward decimating requirements that manufacturers produce cleaner cars. Legislation introduced by Missouri Republican Roy Blunt would align the differing approaches that separate US agencies take to regulating fuel mileage and carbon emissions. Sponsors include Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow.
California countered America’s worst smog by writing its own clean-air rules starting in 1970 and has vowed to remain a bulwark against the deregulation President Donald Trump has promised the auto industry. Brown, a Democrat, said in an interview that the Senate bill bolsters carmakers’ efforts to avoid billions of dollars in penalties for failing to reach efficiency goals.
“It’s of the nature of salami tactics,” Brown said by phone. “They’ll try to take a slice, and if they get away with it, they’ll take another slice and another slice until they really gut the current regime to reduce greenhouse gases and improve
fuel efficiency.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulates fuel economy of US cars and trucks as a matter of energy independence. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, oversees the carbon emissions of vehicles to curb the effects of man-made climate change.
The agencies are reexamining their rules as part of a midterm review of standards set by former President Barack Obama that aim to boost the average fuel economy of each automaker’s fleet to about 50.8 miles per gallon by 2025, up from 30.3 mpg this year. Trump reinstated the review in March, nullifying an EPA determination during the final days of the Obama administration that the requirements were feasible.
Dissonance between the overlapping rules could result in heavy fines from NHTSA even if companies comply with the EPA’s standards, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement. Consumers ultimately wind up paying for the overlap through higher sticker prices, according to the alliance, whose members include General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG.