LOS ANGELES, Feb 19 (Reuters) – A legal clash between the Trump administration and California over auto-pollution rules is coming to a head, with enormous financial implications for EV makers including Tesla opens new tab and traditional automakers dependent on fossil-fuel vehicles.
California is challenging an unorthodox move by congressional Republicans to kill a waiver allowing the state to enact its own emissions regulations. If California wins, it could force U.S. automakers to comply with two diametrically opposed regulatory schemes: President Donald Trump’s anti-EV policy and California’s pro-EV regime, which 11 other states have adopted.
California aims to require automakers to sell 100% EVs or other zero-emission vehicles by 2035, with aggressive interim targets that were set to begin this year. The Trump administration, by contrast, has killed federal EV subsidies and policy incentives – crashing electric-vehicle sales nationally.
California has set its own, tougher auto-pollution rules for decades with bipartisan federal support. Under recent Democratic administrations, those rules largely aligned with federal policies promoting EVs and more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Now, California and federal regulations are heading in opposite directions. Trump eased some emissions regulations in his first term only to see those efforts reversed by Democratic President Joe Biden. Now, in his second term, Trump is taking a scorched-earth approach to federal EV support.
Congressional Republicans last year killed a $7,500-per-EV subsidy and eliminated penalties on automakers failing to meet fuel-efficiency standards. Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week overturned an Obama-era scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health — the foundation of EPA vehicle-pollution rules first adopted in 2010.
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by runnyyolkpigeon
