California Gov. Gavin Newsom welcomed the announcement Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the Biden administration will restore California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act to set its own vehicle emissions standards.
In 2019, as Breitbart News reported, President Donald Trump revoked California’s waiver:
California made a point of resisting the Trump administration’s decision to roll back CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards set by President Barack Obama, by pressuring some automakers to agree to the Obama-era standards anyway.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced to car manufacturers on Tuesday that the Trump administration would reduce the regulatory burden on car production by using a preemption waiver.
“CAFE does not stand for California Assumes Federal Empowerment,” Weeler said in a speech on Tuesday.
Trump said that thwarting California’s attempt to set a new national standard would allow the production of cheaper, safer, cars and would ultimately lower emissions by selling more new cars to replace older ones.
Auto manufacturers had pressed Trump to revoke California’s waiver, then relented under an avalanche of criticism. But the administration followed through.
The Biden administration announced Monday that it would officially reconsider Trump’s decision.
Newsom said in a statement: “For more than half a century, waivers enabling California to develop rigorous vehicle emissions standards have allowed the Golden State to lead the nation with breakthrough innovations for progressively cleaner cars and trucks, while driving down pollution in overburdened communities.
“The U.S. EPA’s announcement today begins the process of restoring this critically important tool to allow California, and the numerous states that have adopted our programs, to usher in the new age of EVs and zero-emission vehicles that we need to clean our air and fight climate change.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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