Oakland, California - 18 September 2019
1. Cars driving past 76 gas station
2. Sign with gas prices
3. Gas nozzle going into car gas tank
Los Angeles - 18 September 2019
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Chavez, Coalition for Clean Air, deputy policy director:
"The administration started indicating that they would be interested in revoking California's waiver and freezing fuel efficiency standards at 2021 levels since they took power."
Oakland, California - 18 September 2019
5. Vehicles driving on Interstate 880
6. View of freeway traffic from inside vehicle
Los Angeles - 18 September 2019
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Chavez, Coalition for Clean Air, deputy policy director:
"Our initial reaction is not necessarily one of surprise but certainly one of disappointment. We knew this was coming. It has been been worked on for about three years but ultimately we are certainly opposed to revoking California's waiver and also the freezing emission standards or CAFE standards at 2021. So our hope certainly is that we're going to continue working on this and opposing it in any way we can."
Oakland, California - 18 September 2019
8. Vehicles driving on Interstate 880
9. View of freeway traffic from inside vehicle
Los Angeles - 18 September 2019
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Chavez, Coalition for Clean Air, deputy policy director:
"The Bush administration threatened to not give California a waiver that got tied up in lawsuits and eventually that got drug out in court until the Obama administration came into power in which he reached an agreement with California. The unique thing about this situation though is that Trump is going in and actively undoing something that was already given to California. So California's waiver was approved in 2016. This is reopening what's called the midterm review and going back and saying that they're taking away the waiver."
Oakland, California - 18 September 2019
10. Cars driving past Valero gas station
11. Station sign with gas prices
Los Angeles - 18 September 2019
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Chavez, Coalition for Clean Air, deputy policy director:
"California has long been a climate leader. And if we're going to stick to our greenhouse gas emission requirements, not goals but just requirements, these emission standards are vitally important."
ARCHIVE
Los Angeles - 3 April 2018
13. Various of freeway traffic
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his administration is revoking California's authority to set auto mileage standards stricter than those issued by federal regulators, a move critics said would result in less fuel efficient cars that create more planet-warming pollution.
In a tweet, Trump said his action would result in less expensive, safer cars. He also predicted Americans would purchase more new cars, which would result in cleaner air as older models are taken off the roads.
U.S. automakers contend that without year-over-year increases in fuel efficiency that align with global market realities their vehicles could be less competitive, potentially resulting in job losses. However, most of the industry favors increases in standards that are less than the Obama-era requirements, saying their consumers are gravitating to gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks rather than buying more efficient cars.
Top California officials and environmental groups pledged legal action on Wednesday to stop the rollback, potentially tying up the issue for years in federal courts. The U.S. transportation sector is the nation's biggest single source of greenhouse gasses.
It's not clear yet what the Trump administration will propose as its final fuel-efficiency rules, but in the past it has favored freezing Obama-era mileage standards at 2021 levels. Under the Obama administration requirements, the fleet of new vehicles would have to average 30 mpg in real-world driving by 2021, rising to 36 mpg in 2025. Currently the standard is 26 mpg.
Under Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency contends that freezing the fuel economy standards will reduce the average sticker price of new vehicles by about $2,700 by 2025, though that predicted savings is disputed by environmental groups and is more than double the EPA estimates from the prior administration.
Trump traveled to California for GOP fundraising events Tuesday and Wednesday near San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
California's authority to set its own, tougher emissions standards goes back to a waiver issued by Congress during passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970. In 2007, when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor, President George W. Bush's administration denied California's bid to place first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars and trucks. But the state asked the EPA to reconsider its decision, and in 2009 — when Democratic President Barack Obama took office — the feds granted California's request.
California has 35 million registered vehicles, the most of any state. A dozen other states and the District of Columbia also follow California's fuel economy standards.
