A little over a month ago, we reported that the Trump administration was expected to launch an effort to roll back Obama-era fuel emission standards for automobiles.
Now, 18 states have sued the administration over this move, launching a legal battle over one of Obama’s few remaining achievements.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt in April said he would revisit the Obama-era rules, which aim to raise efficiency requirements to about 50 miles per gallon by 2025. Pruitt’s agency said that the standards are “based on outdated information” and that new data suggests “the current standards may be too stringent.”But in the lawsuit, the states contend that the EPA acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in changing course on the greenhouse gas regulations….The lawsuit comes amid a larger struggle over climate policy regarding U.S. cars and light trucks. The Trump administration has drafted a proposal that would freeze the federal standards at 2021 levels, leaving them well below levels targeted under Obama.
California, as part of its War on Trump, is participating in the lawsuit. Governor Jerry Brown’s announcement about the legal case was as classy and reality-based as you would expect.
In stinging comments at the Capitol, Brown said actions of the Trump administration were “so outrageous,” adding “Trump is definitely running a one-man demolition derby on science, the Clean Air Act and a lot of things we are trying to do.”Brown called Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt “Outlaw Pruitt,” and accused him of “breaking the law.””He’s flouting the Clean Air Act and the legitimate needs and well-being of the American people,” the governor said.
To put Brown’s assertions into their proper perspective, I must note that a few short weeks ago Brown indicated that three billion people were going to die because of “heat events”.
“When you pick up the paper or turn on cable news, you’d think it’s another planet. It’s all about the nonsense of Washington, and carbon emissions are growing, and we’ve got to radically turn that around, or the migrations you’re seeing now are going to be child’s play,” Brown told reporters Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.“We’re going to have widespread disruption, more conflicts, more terrorism, more insecurity because of climate disruption. The prospect is 3 billion people on this planet will be subject to fatal lethal heat events – 3 billion – and 1 billion will be subjected to vector diseases that they’re not now subject to now,” he said. “This is a horror.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Joining California are mainly members of team Blue State: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
However, none of the other governors will offer the sound, sober scientific reasoning shared by Governor Moonbeam. I am truly blessed to be a Californian.
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