EPA throws out Obama-era clean air standards for cars

California apparently thinks it is a republic, and that doesn’t only apply to immigration enforcement. The Golden State also takes advantage of a federal waiver that allows it to impose even higher clean air standards on industry than those imposed by the federal government. That waiver may be in jeopardy now, however, as the Trump Administration has done away with Obama-era rules that imposed burdens on auto manufacturers to achieve absurdly pristine air quality standards. California remains the outlier, but for how much longer? Scott Pruitt’s EPA doesn’t seem inclined to keep the waiver in place, and that seems likely to provoke a lawsuit:

EPA waiver that allows California to set stricter standards

The current greenhouse gas regulations – which were codified just before Trump took office and required automakers to roughly double fuel economy to more than 50 mpg – would be replaced by a standard developed in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to the EPA. “The previous administration’s determination was wrong,” Pruitt said in a statement. “Obama’s EPA… made assumptions about the standards that didn’t comport with reality and set the standards too high.” The EPA also plans to “reexamine” an EPA waiver that allows California to set stricter standards than those mandated by the feds. “Cooperative federalism doesn’t mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country,” Pruitt said. “It is in America’s best interest to have a national standard, and we look forward to partnering with all states, including California, as we work to finalize that standard.” Already, California’s Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, has threatened to “file suit if necessary.”

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“The Trump Administration’s assault on clean car standards risks our ability to protect our children’s health, tackle climate change, and save hardworking Americans money,” Becerra shot back. “We’re ready to file suit if needed to protect these critical standards and to fight the Administration’s war on our environment. California didn’t become the sixth-largest economy in the world by spectating.”

Ordinarily I would take the position that states should be allowed to impose whatever standards they want. That’s consistent with federalism and with the Tenth Amendment. But here’s the problem: California is such a huge market that every auto manufacturer needs to be able to sell cars in California in order to make a profit. If the other 49 states have a lower standard, but California maintains its super-difficult standard, then every automaker feels like it has to meet the California standard in order to bring their cars to market at all. Add to that the fact the other liberal states, like New York, have sought to adopt the California standard as well, and what you end up with is California setting the de facto standard for the rest of the country simply by virtue of their size. That makes it a pretty clear application for the Commerce Clause. When one state can basically hold the rest of the country hostage to its standard simply by virtue of its size – thus adding to the cost of production and obviously to the price of a car for a consumer – it seems like a textbook case of why the federal government sometimes needs to set uniform standards for the whole country. If the EPA takes away the waiver, California will surely sue. And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s a matter that needs to be settled by the judiciary, and if that’s the case then we might as well settle it now while the government is willing to stand up against environmental extremism imposed by one state on the rest of us. And if the case ever makes it to the Supreme Court, do you understand now why some of us thought a vote for Trump was worth it so we could get Neil Gorsuch?