![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Xavier_Becerra_official_portrait_as_attorney_general_of_California.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, leading a multistate coalition, today filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration\u2019s\u00a0disastrous final rule rolling back the nation\u2019s Clean Car Standards. The Clean Car Standards require appropriate and feasible improvements in fuel economy and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and light trucks. Since their introduction in\u00a02010, these standards have saved consumers money, reduced harmful emissions, and helped protect the health of our communities. The Trump Administration\u2019s misguided Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles (SAFE)\u00a0rule stops this progress in its tracks, hurting the economy and public health at a time when the country can least afford it. In the lawsuit, the coalition will argue that the final rule unlawfully\u00a0violates\u00a0the Clean Air Act, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe underpinnings for the Trump Administration\u2019s so-called\u00a0\u2018SAFE\u2019 rule are crumbling before the rule even hits the road.\u00a0The Administration claims their new rule will save money and lives, but previously undisclosed internal documents reveal how far\u00a0from the truth that is,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Becerra.\u00a0<\/b>\u201cJust read the text of the\u00a0rule and you will discover that it is a job-killer and public health hazard. It will increase costs to consumers\u00a0and allow the emission of\u00a0dangerous\u00a0pollutants that directly threaten the health of our families. President Trump should have listened to his own scientists. America\u2019s Clean Car Standards were doing the job. We\u2019re going to court to defend them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the\u00a0National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA),\u00a0the California Air Resources Board, and the nation\u2019s car manufacturers established a unified national program\u00a0harmonizing greenhouse gas emission standards and fuel efficiency standards, known collectively as the Clean Car Standards. Two years later, the agencies extended the national program to model years 2017-2025 vehicles.\u00a0As part of the program, California and the federal agencies agreed to undertake a midterm evaluation to determine if the greenhouse gas emission standards for model years 2022-2025 vehicles should be maintained or revised.\u00a0In January 2017, the EPA completed the midterm evaluation and issued a final determination affirming that the Clean Car Standards were appropriate and would not be changed.<\/p>\n
The following year, the Trump Administration\u00a0took its first step toward dismantling the Clean Car Standards by reversing the final determination with a new mid-term evaluation that alleged the standards were no longer appropriate or feasible. The Trump Administration later made its rollback proposal official, despite the fact that the auto industry was currently on track to meet or exceed the\u00a0Clean Car Standards.<\/p>\n
On March 31, 2020, the Trump Administration announced its final rule rolling back the Clean Car Standards. The rule takes aim at the corporate average fuel efficiency standards, requiring\u00a0automakers to\u00a0make only minimal improvements to fuel economy\u2014on the order of 1.5 percent annually instead\u00a0of the previously anticipated annual improvement of approximately 5 percent. The rule also guts the requirements to reduce vehicles\u2019 greenhouse gas emissions, allowing hundreds of millions of metric tons of avoidable carbon emissions into our atmosphere over the next decade.<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0lawsuit,\u00a0the coalition will argue that the Trump Administration’s\u00a0rollback of the nation\u2019s Clean Cars Standards is unlawful because, among other things:<\/p>\n
Attorney General Becerra has been\u00a0a\u00a0staunch defender of the nation\u2019s Clean Car Standards and of California\u2019s right to set its vehicle emissions standards.\u00a0In October 2018, Attorney General Becerra, leading a coalition of 21 attorneys general and the\u00a0cities of\u00a0Oakland, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco and New York,\u00a0submitted comments<\/a>\u00a0detailing numerous, fundamental flaws with the Trump rollback proposal and\u00a0demanding that the Trump Administration withdraw it. The month before, in\u00a0September 2018, Attorney General Becerra joined officials from around California to\u00a0testify in defense<\/a>\u00a0of the nation\u2019s existing Clean Car Standards at a public hearing in Fresno, California.\u00a0Attorney General Becerra is also\u00a0leading a coalition of 24 attorneys general and the cities of Los Angeles and New York challenging the Trump Administration\u2019s unlawful attempt to undo California\u2019s greenhouse gas emission and zero emission vehicle standards.<\/p>\n In filing the lawsuit, Attorney General Becerra is joined by the attorneys general of\u00a0Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. The California Air Resources Board,\u00a0the\u00a0Cities of Los Angeles,\u00a0New York,\u00a0San Francisco,\u00a0and\u00a0Denver, and the Counties of San Francisco and Denver also joined the coalition in filing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n