U.S. Prepares to Revoke Calif. Emission Powers

U.S. regulators are finalizing a long-expected plan that would strip California of the power to set its own limits for greenhouse gas emissions, sources tell Reuters.

The strategy has been developed by the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The plan also would block the dozen other states that support California’s determination to enforce the tougher Obama era emission and fuel economy rules poised to take effect in 2021-2025.

The Trump administration wants to cancel those standards, asserting that the cost of meeting them is too onerous for carmakers and consumers.

California and several other states have vowed a protracted legal fight to oppose the administration’s plan. The result could be years of uncertainty, during which carmakers would be forced to meet two sets of standards spread like a patchwork across the U.S.

Federal emission rules are established by EPA, but California has been allowed by the 1970 Clean Air Act to set its own pollution limits. Separately, NHTSA has the exclusive authority to create fuel economy targets for cars sold in the U.S.

Those independent regulatory functions became muddled when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that EPA could add carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas to its list of regulated pollutants. California was granted a waiver in 2013 under the Clean Air Act to do the same.

CO₂ is formed when fossil fuels burn. So, lowering CO₂ emissions also raises fuel efficiency and vice versa. NHTSA contends that California has no right to set fuel economy limits, which would be the de facto result of imposing its own CO₂ limits.