California and 17 other states have joined together to file a new lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency and the Trump administration in an effort to protect national vehicle emission standards from being rolled back by the federal government.
“The states joining today’s lawsuit represent 140 million people who simply want cleaner and more efficient cars,” Brown said in a statement. “This phalanx of states will defend the nation’s clean car standards to boost gas mileage and curb toxic air pollution.”
The lawsuit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and seeks to set aside and hold the EPA's efforts to weaken clean car rules established by California and other states.
The states argue that the EPA has acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and has failed to follow its own regulations, violating the Clean Air Act.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that today's clean car standards are not only achievable, they're based in science and a boon for hardworking American families.
“Enough is enough,” Becerra said. “We’re not looking to pick a fight with the Trump administration, but when the stakes are this high for our families’ health and our economic prosperity, we have a responsibility to do what is necessary to defend them.”
In 2010, California along with the EPA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the California Air Resources Board, established a single national program for greenhouse gas emissions standards for those vehicles built between 2012 and 2025.
“The standards we are fighting to protect were adopted in 2012 and don’t take effect until 2022. They were a lifeline thrown to an industry that was in trouble and desperate for stability. They were based on the best judgment of engineers about what technology could achieve. And in fact they are being achieved today, years ahead of the deadlines, because of the good work of the auto industry,” said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary D. Nichols.
“But now Administrator Pruitt, based on no new information or facts, wants to roll back all that progress in the name of deregulation. The Final Determination is just the first step but it is intended to provide the legal basis for a decision that has already been made: to halt the progress that regulators and industry have made toward a new generation of vehicles. It does not withstand scrutiny and it will not stand,” Nichols said.
Advocates for the new standards say the standards the states are suing to protect is estimated to reduce carbon pollution equivalent to 134 coal power plants burning for a year. The emission standards also save drivers up to $1,650 per vehicle.
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