fuel economy standards

The CAFE Rollback Is Audaciously, Aggressively Awful

The proposal even rolls back standards that the first Trump Administration set.

This morning I blogged about some wonky reactions to the Trump/NHTSA rollback of the CAFE standards.  Now I want to step back and highlight just how truly bad the new set of standards is, based on incredibly aggressive legal interpretations. As my first post highlights, the standards are set for ten years despite statutory language …

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Still Not SAFE

The Trump administration moves ahead with plans to roll back Obama-era fuel economy standards.

After months of delay, the Trump administration has reportedly chosen this coming week—in the middle of a nationwide crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic—to finally release the second part of its two-part rollback of Obama-era automotive fuel economy standards.  This isn’t the only environmental rollback action the administration is planning to take during the coming …

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Are You Sure That’s What You Want?

Automakers might get a federal “one national standard”…just not the one they seem interested in.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Trump administration will move to finalize its rollback of federal fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards by the end of the year, and that, unlike the freeze previously proposed by the administration, the rule will require annual fuel economy improvements of 1.5 percent.  That’s still much …

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Toyota’s Defense of Its Choice to Support the Trump Administration’s Auto Standards Rollback Rings Hollow

Sadly, Toyota Has Ceded Its Place As the Industry’s Environmental Leader

My colleagues Ann, Cara, Julia, and Rick have all written about various aspects of the decision by General Motors, Toyota, and other automobile manufacturers to side with the Trump administration as it tries to prevent California from setting its own greenhouse gas emission standards. The administration is implementing this rollback in tandem with a federal …

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Let’s Get One Thing Straight

The waiver preemption lawsuit isn’t about one national fuel economy standard.

As Ann wrote yesterday, the Association of Global Automakers and the auto companies General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler have stated their intent to intervene in pending litigation challenging the Trump administration’s rule to preempt California’s Advanced Clean Cars program, and any future tailpipe greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards the state and others might seek …

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The Trump Administration Just Released Its Proposal to Eviscerate Car Standards, Revoke California Authority

The Legal Grounds For Doing So Are Dubious At Best

As expected, the Trump Administration has released its proposal that recommends freezing combined fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards at 2020 levels for model years 2021-2025.  The proposal also recommends revoking the waiver EPA granted California in 2013 to issue its own greenhouse gas emissions standards and to continue the state’s program to gradually increase …

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Wheeler EPA Looking to Freeze Auto Standards, Revoke California Waiver

Lawsuits will follow

According to a Bloomberg report this morning, the Trump Administration, under new EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, will release a proposal later this week to freeze greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards at 2020 levels. The effect is that automakers will face standards of about 35 miles per gallon rather than seeing the standards increase …

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The New EPA Plan To Roll Back Auto Emissions Standards and “Supersede” the California Waiver is Legally Indefensible

It is also terrible for the planet

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that EPA will propose to roll back greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles to 2020 levels.  EPA will also claim that the California waiver is superseded by fuel economy standards issued by NHTSA and therefor is not valid, according to the report: Administration lawyers argue that the law gives …

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Why California gets to write its own auto emissions standards: 5 questions answered

Authored by Nicholas Bryner and Meredith Hankins

Rush hour on the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, September 9, 2016. AP Photo/Richard Vogel This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Editor’s note: On April 2, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration plans to revise tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor …

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Trump and Climate Change

There’s Nothing Good to Be Said About It

A Trump Presidency is a disaster for U.S. leadership on climate change. There’s no other way to spin this election.  Myron Ebell, the head of Trump’s EPA transition team, thinks that President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is illegal, the Paris Agreement unconstitutional and that climate change “is nothing to worry about.”  Though most of the …

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What does UUD mean?

A key legal standard in public lands law is being used by the Trump Administration to stop renewable energy, but in the long run the Administration’s position may advance environmentalists objectives.