California Wins the Gas War, Fickle Automotive Coalition Realigns Position

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky
california wins the gas war fickle automotive coalition realigns position

The Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation (CSAR) is officially withdrawing from a lawsuit between California and federal authorities over the coastal state’s ability to establish its own emissions standards. California leadership had vowed to ignore the Trump administration’s proposed rollback and began making binding side deals with automakers (specifically BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Honda) committed to adhering to the aggressive limits established under President Obama. Unfortunately, this ran the risk of undermining the revised national standards penned shortly after the United States became energy independent. It also set up the CSAR to embrace any entity that had views conflicting with California Air Resources Board.

Federal concerns were that the Golden State setting its own targets would butt heads with the relaxed national benchmarks and ultimately divide the U.S. market and may even influence the types of vehicles that were manufactured for all of North America. But the issue became moot once President Biden broke the record for executive orders by signing 22 in his first week. Predictably, the brunt of these were designed to instantly undo any actions taken throughout the duration of the Trump administration and included one directing the Department of Transportation and EPA to reconsider the 2019 decision to remove California’s authority to limit tailpipe emissions by April and revise the fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles by summer.

Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, General Motors dropped out of the lawsuit after backing the Trump administration shortly after the U.S. election. “We believe the ambitious electrification goals of the President-elect [Biden], California, and General Motors are aligned, to address climate change by drastically reducing automobile emissions,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a November letter addressed to various environmental groups.

It wasn’t long before Toyota, which had also joined the Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation — along with Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and the National Automobile Dealers Association — said it was similarly “reconsidering” its position.

Meanwhile, companies backing California ( especially Ford) suggested opponents should change their minds. Before long, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) — which represents many of the world’s largest automotive conglomerates and tech firms — issued similar messaging that members should support the Biden-Harris energy plan. It even vowed to work with the administration on establishing a revised nationwide program that utilizes California in addition to reaching net-zero carbon production from automobiles and transitioning the whole nation toward electric vehicles.

They appear to have taken its advice to heart, too. On Tuesday, the Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation announced that it had realigned itself with the new administration much in the same way GM had in November.

From CSAR:

The Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation (CSAR) chose to intervene in a lawsuit between California and the federal government to support a unified fuel economy and greenhouse gas (GHG) program. We are aligned with the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve year-over-year improvements in fuel economy standards that provide meaningful climate and national energy security benefits, reduce GHG emissions and promote advanced technologies. In a gesture of good faith and to find a constructive path forward, the CSAR has decided to withdraw from this lawsuit in order to unify the auto industry behind a single national program, with ambitious, achievable standards.

We don’t anticipate hearing much more from the Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation and presume any future announcements to closely resemble messaging from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

[Image: Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock]

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  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Feb 03, 2021

    "Should one buy a very good car now..." Proposed QOTD: What would be a "very good car" to buy now, if one bought into this line of thinking? [Edit: Arghh bad aim. (I love it when I'm wrong.)]

  • CKNSLS Sierra SLT CKNSLS Sierra SLT on Feb 03, 2021

    CARB is easy to bash unless you grew up in Southern California. I'm not for government overreach, but my first hand knowledge and observation call tell you that CARB did a whole lot of good. Growing up in the 60's in Southern California there were about 20 million people in the state. I used to visit my Grandma in the San Gabriel Valley-with the San Gabriel Mountains all but invisible to the naked eye-less than twenty miles away as the crow flies. Playing on the black top at school or at my Grandparents house my throat used to ache and my eyes would water-all due to very thick smog. Fast forward 50 years later-the state has 40 million residents ( and more motor vehicles than any other state) and the air is cleaner than it's ever been-mostly due to CARB regulation. So yes-there can upsides to regulation. I have since moved and retired 9 years ago.

  • Chuck Norton For those worried about a complex power train-What vehicle doesn't have one? I drive a twin turbo F-150 (3.5) Talk about complexity.. It seems reliability based on the number of F-150s sold is a non-issue. As with many other makes/models. I mean how many operations are handle by micro processors...in today's vehicles?
  • Ravenuer The Long Island Expressway.
  • Kwik_Shift A nice stretch of fairly remote road that would be great for test driving a car's potential, rally style, is Flinton Road off of Highway 41 in Ontario. Twists/turns/dips/rises. Just hope a deer doesn't jump out at you. Also Highway 60 through Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario. Great scenery with lots of hills.
  • Saeed Hello, I need a series of other accessories from Lincoln. Do you have front window, front and rear lights, etc. from the 1972 and 1976 models
  • Probert Wow - so many digital renders - Ford, Stellantis. - whose next!!! They're really bringing it on....
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