Trump ups ante in feud with California over car emissions

Bloomberg

The Trump administration has launched a multipronged legal assault on an agreement California struck with four carmakers in defiance of the president’s plan to ease national standards on tailpipe emissions.
Lawyers from the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to California’s top air-pollution regulator, urging the state to abandon its pact with the automakers and warning that actions to carry out the agreement “appear to be unlawful and invalid.”
Separately, the Justice Department has opened an antitrust probe into the deal, in which four automakers agreed on compromise tailpipe emissions requirements with California. The administration is also preparing to formally strip California’s authority to set auto efficiency regulations that are tougher than the federal government’s.
The actions amount to a significant escalation of the conflict between the Trump administration and Sacramento over environmental protections. It comes as automakers have urged the administration to moderate its rollback of emissions levels, arguing that a battle with California over the state’s regulatory powers would leave the industry with uncertainty over the critical standards for years.
Automakers want to avoid splitting the market with two different standards — a federal mileage requirement in most states versus more stringent rules in more than a dozen states that adhere to California’s standards and account for more than a third of US auto sales.
After talks with California and the Trump administration faltered, the California Air Resources Board announced in July an accord with the Ford Motor Co, Honda Motor Co, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG on tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions regulations.
The carmakers had agreed with California’s clean-air regulator to boost the fuel efficiency of autos sold in the US through 2026, defying a Trump administration proposal to ease mileage requirements enacted during the Obama administration.
Ford and Honda said they would cooperate with the Justice Department, while VW said it was “in regular contact with US authorities on a number of matters.” BMW of North America said it looked forward “to responding to the Department of Justice to explain the planned CARB framework agreement”.