AUTO INDUSTRY/CANADA/CLIMATE CHANGE/ENVIRONMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Canada has signaled a willingness to buck one of President Trump’s most significant environmental rollbacks — a major weakening of auto pollution standards — by signing a clean-car deal with California, the state leading the fight against the rollback. Wednesday’s [6-26-19] Agreement, which pledges to advance the use of clean and electric cars, lacks binding specifics. Nevertheless, Canada’s decision to publicly align itself with California and its climate-change policies inserts the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into a high-profile battle being waged over Mr. Trump’s weakening of rules designed to combat climate change…Traditionally, Canada has aligned its auto emissions standards with federal rules in the United States. However, several analysts said they saw Wednesday’s announcement as a clear step toward a more concrete shift in which Canada could potentially switch to the environmentally stricter standards of California and other states. Such a move could undercut Mr. Trump’s efforts to weaken environmental policy by creating a much larger market for cleaner cars, thereby making it more economically viable for auto manufacturers to build cars to the higher standards.”
–Coral Davenport, “Canada Signals a Willingness to Challenge Trump on His Clean-Car Rollback,” The New York Times online, June 26, 2019