AUTO INDUSTRY/CALIFORNIA/CLIMATE CHANGE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is proposing to freeze fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks in 2020, a move that will ease rules for auto makers and also likely intensify a legal fight with California. The proposal outlined Thursday [8-2-18] would eliminate the sharp increase in fuel-economy requirements adopted under the Obama administration in collaboration with California. The fuel-efficiency rules, which were key to former President Barack Obama’s efforts to fight climate change, require auto makers to cut emissions enough so that new vehicles sold average more than 50 miles a gallon by 2025. This latest proposal, which is subject to a 60-day public comment period, would still increase targets through 2020 but then hold them at that level, significantly lowering the longer-term requirements through 2026. The new target would be 37 miles a gallon by 2026. The plan gives car companies more flexibility at a time when low fuel prices have resulted in soaring sales of bigger, less-efficient pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Those vehicles now account for more than 60% of the U.S. auto market. Trump administration officials say that meeting the current standards would require costly, fuel-saving technology that customers would balk at paying, opting instead to keep older, dirtier and less-safe cars…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, disputed the Trump administration’s claims, saying greater efficiency saves consumers money and protects their health by lowering air pollution and addressing climate change, “the most important global environmental issue of our time.””
–Timothy Puko, “Trump Administration Aims to Freeze Fuel Standards, End Tougher California Rules,” The Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2018 10:15 am