General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and a number of other major automakers have sided with President Donald Trump in California’s lawsuit against the administration over whether or not the state has the right to set its own emissions and fuel economy standards.
The California Air Resources Board has been at odds with Trump for months, with the president seeking to rollback Obama-era fuel economy standards, which the administration believes will make it hard for manufacturers to remain competitive in the industry. The Obama-era standards would have required manufacturers meet a fleetwide fuel economy standard of 30 mpg by 2021 and 36 mpg by 2025. Under the Trump proposal, the standard would freeze at 30 mpg between 2021 and 2025. The current national standard is 26 mpg.
California, along with 22 other states, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in September, claiming the federal government does not have the authority to revoke a waiver that allows a state to set its own tailpipe emissions and fuel economy standards. In July, BMW, Volkswagen, Ford and Honda reached a deal with California, committing to meet increase their fleetwide fuel economy averages to a level closer to the Obama-era policy, but also indicated they wanted all 50 U.S. states to agree on a single standard.
The coalition of automakers that has now sided with Trump in the row, which is called the “Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation” also includes Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Isuzu, Maserati, McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari, in addition to GM, Toyota and FCA. BMW, Volkswagen, Ford and Honda, along with the Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation, are both seeking to have one standard implemented, though one group has sided with California, whereas the other has backed the White House.
In a statement, John Bozzella, spokesperson for the coalition, said the “certainty of one national program, with reasonable, achievable standards, is the surest way to reduce emissions in the timeliest manner.”
“With our industry facing the possibility of multiple, overlapping and inconsistent standards that drive up costs and penalize consumers, we had an obligation to intervene (in the lawsuit against the Trump administration),” Bozzella added.
“In 2010 we agreed, all the parties, federal agencies, the state of California, we agreed on one national program,” he also said. “California stepped away from that national program. There were no negotiations between California and the federal government that resolved that split.”
Automakers are eager to see the Trump administration and California (along with Canada as well) agree on a single fuel economy standard, as trying to meet two separate standards could prove to be costly. The White House estimates that under the Obama-era policy, the average price of a new car would rise by about $2,700, though environmental groups argue that this figure does not account for the potential fuel savings more efficient vehicles could result in.
GM CEO Mary Barra met with Donald Trump in September to discuss a variety of issues, with emissions regulations believed to be among them.
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Source: The Hill
Comments
If GM does not care about the Environment and wants to pollute more, I will not buy an car from them. They deserve to go Bankrupt, and I don’t care how many people lose their jobs because of it, the fallout is certainly worth it.
Trump just won’t make a bomb threat, he’ll blow your a$$ up.
Make GM Great again.
Get Mary out, put Trump in. If you’re a GM lover, guaranteed better off with Trump.
second, third or fourth bankruptcy for gm will do the trick.
the US annual deficit just jumped 25% from last year and nearing a trillion. trump is obviously the right man for the job.
Especially when some of that trillion goes to his campaign funding friends!
Seems the only a$$ he’s blown up is his own. #TentAsGolfShorts #PerfectPhoneCall
Trump is a rich idiot. He only thinks about his money, especially the oil sponsored campaign money, which will be lost if the EPA stays with the California levels and reduces gas consumption. So he has a visible agenda. He didn’t learn history as this nation’s name is “The United States” or a Union of Federal States with independent autonomy, so California can establish its own emission levels, which has save the Californian environment and lives for over thirty years. He doesn’t care abut saving U.S. lives as long as he gets re-elected.
Trump should be locked up in a sealed room with his car engine running! Then he will cry out for lower emissions to save his life. That lawsuit will fail!
Ford Owner – Go “F”ord yourself and your stupid opinion…
That’s cute, your kid help you write that ?
Threatening the POTUS in a blog for all the world to see is some kind of stupid.
Go drive your ford off a cliff.
So GM cannot sell well in California yet they decide to go against the Regulations that other States prefer as well.
They keep telling the Public that they want a Zero/Zero/Zero Future yet they go against tougher regulations?
You just cannot make these things up. GM needs new Leadership that can stick to a plan.
They are all over the Place.
GM has spent Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Lawsuits and Lobbyists fighting emission regulations for years, going back to when Clean Air began to be an issue. GM killed their EV electric car and put their money into the Hummer. Toyota however, put that money into R & D and came out with the Prius, which is sold in volume the world over. One company is the world leader in sales and technology and the other company went bankrupt and is a shell of its former self. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
California is trying to regulate interstate commerce with its own carbon standards and entered into an agreement with a foreign government. Under our constitution, these powers are given to the federal government alone. So if there is a conflict between federal policy and California policy on carbon emissions, the federal government will always win that fight. GM et al are merely supporting a single nationwide standard that is achievable.
There is an interesting article on Car & Driver. Seems Mark Reuss wanted a law mandating EVs? Hey Mark how about freedom and market forces, this isn’t China. That said GM has most of their eggs in the Chinese basket…
Funny that the companies that are behind in the EV game are the ones against the California regulations.
The ones that are in the lead in the EV space are siding with California. Everyone here needs to stop being Political. I could honestly care less which Party everyone here likes or dislikes.
I am not stating whether California is right or wrong, just stating that GM has no clue what they are doing and are always talking out of both sides of their mouth. You’re either 100 Percent doing the Zero/Zero/Zero thing or just go All In on Gas Slurping SUV’s and Trucks. It really cannot be any simpler.
Nissan, Hyundai, and GM do not know how to build EV’s ? How naive. They build some of the best value EV’s on the market. All 3 of them refused to side with California.
OTOH, BMW has no ideas on how to make a good EV. They build gas guzzling 4.4 L V8 sports cars. A company with that kind of DNA will fail to transition into EV’s.
Actually Toyota is siding with GM against California enacting their own set of regulations , even when they are the current EV sales leaders
GM has to play both sides on this. EVs are the future, but ice pays the bills right now.
They all have to play both sides as EV will grow in the future but it will be a slow growth. The reality is ICE is not going away anytime soon. I
Automakers including GM have ICE plans till at least 2050.
The reality is EV is not for everyone at least yet. Forcing people into it is not going to work. Continued development and reducing cost are key to the growth of EV. Till then ICE will remain a part of the equation.
Automakers are going to have to be on both sides to survive.
As for the laws we need to come to a compromise on a national regulations for the sake of the companies cost and the consumers pockets. The long and short of it is the cost will rise with different regulations and those cost will be passed on to the customers.
This is no different than the SAE getting a standard for fasteners. If they were different in each state imagine the cost increase we would see.
This is not only important to our country here but if we expect to do business overseas we will need to work to match up with global markets to be able to sell products there.
Forcing everyone into a Bolt is not going to keep companies in business or customers happy.
It’s as simple as wanting one national standard, not allowing every state to have their own. Nothing else.
there’s to much automotive heritage in SoCal for this to ever work… NHRA museum Pomona, Ca. where it all started, over the hill in the old day Riverside Raceway,
then Ontario international motor speedway now Long Beach Grand Prix. not to mention Auto Club Speedway…
lots of others….
never happen…
Everyone that has a problem with this should shutup please in the nicest way. The new ban that California put on Gas cars is completely ridiculous and wont work if the market is not ready for it all together. You can not force people to buy electric cars when 80 percent of the country still likes ICE vehicles. It took years before ICE vehicles to replace wagons and horses. Please do not expect for everyone to just jump over to electric cars in a quick and short time period that is stupid