California Preps Formal Response in Gas War, Calls MPG Rollback 'Unlawful'

by Matt Posky

October 25th, 2018 2:00 PM

california preps formal response in gas war calls mpg rollback 8216 unlawful

California and 18 other states plan to formally vent their grievances over the Trump administration’s proposal to freeze fuel economy standards at 2020 levels on Friday. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have called for public comments on the matter, with the deadline taking place at the end of this week. Apparently, California wants its voice to be the last one heard.

“They are grossly derelict in not trying to move the dial forward in cleaning the air and the environment,” California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “The situation continues to get worse and requires action now, and not for us to stand pat.”

According to Bloomberg, Becerra called the administration’s proposal “unlawful” since it sets out to revoke California’s ability to self regulate economy standards and set quotas for electric car sales within the state. He also said the plan violates the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires extensive documentation before any existing regulations can be overturned, as well as the EPA’s statutory obligation to reduce harmful pollution.

The subplot of this narrative includes a

#CAFE #CaliforniaAirResourcesBoard #CARB #CorporateAverageFuelEconomy #DonaldTrump #Emissions #EnvironmentalProtectionAgency #EPA #FuelEconomy #Government #NHTSA #Regulation

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St.George on Oct 26, 2018

I understand that the 47 mpg CAFE standard was one of those delayed 'bombs' left at the end of the outgoing administrations reign to trip up the new guy. Anyway, what will happen if everyone magically starts driving 47 mpg hatchbacks will be a decline in revenue for both the oil companies & government. You can bet your bottom dollar that both will jack up the price & taxes to make up for the lost revenue. The honorable MS Madigans argument that by not implementing this onerous standard will hurt the poor is complete BS. I can also foresee the price of the car increasing, and the routine maintenance costs increasing also. By the way, Europe does of course have emissions standards but not a target mpg. They tax vehicles that emit more at a higher rate, this naturally encourages folks to buy smaller, more economical vehicles. To me, setting an arbitrary mpg target isn't the best way of going about things. And before anyone gets their panties wadded, I like economical vehicles (have a strange hankering for a CT200h), renewable energy, the environment and trucks/steaks/boats/planes & The Constitution as written & intended, go figure!

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- Pch101 on Oct 26, 2018
  
  No, the EU does have a fuel economy standard that is similar to the first version of CAFE. By 2021, the required average for cars and vans is 95 grams per km. That works out to be 57 mpg in US gallons. But that's from a lab test that is known to be optimistic. In practice, they are expecting the real world fuel economy to average about 134 g/km, which is about 40 mpg. In the US, 47 mpg for the CAFE test works out to be about 35 mpg on the window sticker.
  
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- DeadWeight on Oct 26, 2018
  
  @Pch101 It's good to see the return of Pch101, who likely realized that his valuable input would not now fall into a massive sinkhole of extreme right-wing insanity, as they typically did when the Baruth Breitbart Bannon Brothers were commenting frequently and pushing out all rational discourse with their overly politicized and nonsensical editorializing and nearly nonstop stream of baths!t crazy thought diarrhea.
  
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- Pch101 on Oct 26, 2018
  
  @DeadWeight Well, that's kind of you, although I haven't read this site in ages and have almost no idea what has been going on during that time. Has it really been that bad?
  
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- Ubermensch on Oct 26, 2018
  
  @Pch101 Oh it has. This site has turned into a looney right-wing echo-chamber. Any remotely "liberal" comment is immediately bombarded with verbal diarrhea calling the commentor a sufferer of TDS, an NPC, or other stupidity from 4Chan and /r/T_D, etc...
  
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- Pch101 on Oct 26, 2018
  
  @Pch101 That doesn't sound much different from before. Robert Farago was a fair-minded conservative, but there have always been some whackjob posters in the comments sections here.
  
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- Big Al from Oz on Oct 26, 2018
  
  Pch101, Its true about TTAC. In my opinion ever since The Truth About The NRA joined the company I think the Baruths were being paid to market Trump Inc. And a migration of ultra right wing morons followed. Its great to see your name here again, even though we disagreed often. Hang around.
  
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Brn on Oct 26, 2018

Can we not call it an "MPG rollback"? The proposal is to freeze the requirements at the 2020 levels. In other words, still make it more stringent than it is now.

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