California sues Trump administration over rollback of emissions standards
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Local // Science
Bob Egelko
April 5, 2019 Updated: April 5, 2019 4:19 p.m.
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California's Air Resources Board sued the Trump administration Friday for information that might support the federal government's claim that its proposed weakening of auto emissions standards would save lives.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency introduced regulations last August to roll back fuel-efficiency standards adopted under President Barack Obama's administration that would require new cars and light trucks to reach an average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025. The proposed rules would instead impose a requirement of 37 mpg from model years 2021 through 2025.
The EPA also wants to repeal a waiver that has allowed California and 13 other states to set stricter standards for emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, and zero-emissions electric vehicles, than the rest of the nation.
Administration officials contend the rollback would reduce traffic deaths by about 1,000 per year. Their rationale is that stricter emissions and fuel-efficiency standards would make new cars so expensive that many Americans would keep their older vehicles, which are heavier and more dangerous.
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California and 16 other states had already sued the EPA last May over its announced plans to ease the clean-air standards, a suit that is still pending. The Air Resources Board's suit filed Friday in Washington, D.C., federal court, said the Trump administration has refused to release information that the board has sought since September to back up the EPA's assertion that its new rules would promote safety.
"The Trump administration is willfully withholding information on their ill-advised rollback of federal vehicle emission standards because there is simply no science or logic to back up their actions," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Despite repeated requests by the state under the Freedom of Information Act, the lawsuit said, federal officials have provided no data on the relationship between the size and cost of new cleaner-air vehicles and the risk of fatalities. Similar suits have also been filed by the state of New York and environmental groups.
California officials also said the Trump administration's proposal could increase greenhouse-gas emissions in the state by almost 15 million metric tons per year by 2025, the equivalent of putting 2.8 million more cars on the road.
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"The public has a right to see all the facts and analysis used to support a rollback that increases oil consumption, hurts consumers and pumps more air pollution and hundreds of millions of tons of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere," said the Air Resources Board's chairwoman, Mary Nichols.
The EPA has forecast that the additional greenhouse gases emitted under its proposed standards would increase global temperatures by about 5 thousandths of a degree Fahrenheit.
The federal agency said it would not comment on Friday's lawsuit. But the agency said it is committed to issuing a final rule that "improves vehicle safety, enhances consumer choice, and continues environmental progress."
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
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Bob Egelko has been a reporter since June 1970. He spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasionally sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal affairs in San Francisco from 1984 onward. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner for five months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.
His beat includes state and federal courts in California, the Supreme Court and the State Bar. He has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage has included the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court and her removal by the voters, the death penalty in California and the battles over gay rights and same-sex marriage.