A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Trump administration cannot delay a regulation that increased automakers’ fines for “gas-guzzling” cars that violate fuel efficiency standards.
Two weeks after winning a victory against aggressive federal fuel economy rules aimed at speeding adoption of electrified vehicles, the U.S. auto industry went to Capitol Hill last week to press Congress for a national fuel octane standard that would help increase the efficiency of the internal combustion engine.
Mary Nichols gave the California Air Resources Board national reach, and now President Trump’s EPA is threatening to roll back her vision of the future.
The Trump administration’s latest move on environmental policy may sound like a familiar tussle: Green activists want to retain ambitious standards to reduce tailpipe emissions, while free-market advocates say automakers are saddled with onerous and unnecessary regulations.
Officials from the Trump administration and the State of California, who have been negotiating behind the scenes on car emissions standards, are expected to reopen talks that could preserve rules targeted by the Environmental Protection Agency for elimination
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said yesterday the agency plans to modify rules limiting carbon-dioxide emissions for light-duty vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025.
The Trump administration announced that fuel-efficiency regulations for cars and light trucks are too stringent and must be revised, beginning a process sought by the U.S. auto industry to pare anti-pollution targets.
As the Trump administration begins to dismantle Barack Obama’s ambitious auto efficiency regulations, California is said to be poised to retaliate by doing something that automakers have feared: de-coupling the state’s rules with those set in Washington.
The Trump administration is expected to launch an effort in coming days to weaken greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for automobiles, handing a victory to car manufacturers and giving them ammunition to potentially roll back industry standards worldwide.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said late on Tuesday it was proposing to cancel a planned hike in higher “gas-guzzler” penalties for automakers whose vehicles fail to meet minimum fuel-economy standards.
