J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo/
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, right, and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao speak to reporters about President Trump’s decision to revoke California’s authority to set its own, stricter auto mileage standards, at EPA headquarters in Washington, September 18, 2019.
In what would be a very big story at any time other than pandemic season, the Trump administration today officially rolled back the fuel efficiency and emissions standards on cars that the Obama administration promulgated in 2012. Instead of requiring automakers to increase efficiency by 5 percent a year so that cars could get an average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025, Trump’s minions have decreed that efficiency should increase by just 1.5 percent a year so cars could get 40 miles per gallon in 2026.
Worse still, the new rules, the administration contends, should apply to California and the dozen other states that adhere to the Golden State’s stricter emissions standards. California was permitted to set its own standards when the first air quality legislation was enacted in the early 1970s, but the Trumpotskies’ diktat, they insist, should supersede that—an issue that will be resolved either by the courts or by November’s election.
The administration’s new rules are, obviously, bad news for the planet and for air quality. But do they actually help Trump politically? In oil patch states, and perhaps in auto factories, probably. But elsewhere? Clearly, the decision would compel motorists to have to buy a lot more gas than they would under the Obama standards. Clearly, the decision will not be beloved in regions already submerged under smog, some of which are also regions with swing congressional districts, like inland California.
So if the administration’s dismissal of the coronavirus threat doesn’t get us, fear not. Their indifference to the climate crisis may well.
