The Trump administration's fight with auto makers over clean-car standards is unnecessary. Only a decade ago, state and national leaders, environmental advocates and auto executives came together to compromise for the common good. Their 2009 clean-car agreement put the U.S. on a path to less climate pollution, greater savings at the pump and the regulatory certainty that auto makers need to manage long-term capital investment. Stakeholders could look ahead to an era of innovation and profit.
Now the Trump administration is proposing a hiatus on the steady improvement in the nation's rules to limit climate pollution and improve gas mileage in cars and light trucks.
It would freeze emissions standards at 2020 levels, a dramatic rollback. The administration's own analysis concluded that this approach would add more than seven billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere by 2100.
In June, 17 auto makers, including General Motors and Ford, said thanks but no thanks. They asked the federal government to return to the negotiation table with them and California, which has set its own vehicle-pollution standards, to find a better way forward. The administration declined.
At this point, several auto companies forged an alternative path.
Since much of the world, including Canada, Asia and Europe, is demanding cleaner vehicles, four auto makers agreed with California in July on voluntary principles that would reduce pollution and provide the certainty and stability car makers need.
Car companies and clean-air advocates don't always agree. This time we do. The voluntary pollution-reduction principles that Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen negotiated with California are as close to a win-win as you'll find in public policy.
The car companies want stronger standards than those sought by the White House. By spurring the deployment of advanced clean-car technology, the principles would allow new car buyers to spend less on gasoline and maintenance. They would also drive down pollution across the country from cars, SUVs and passenger trucks.
Now the Trump administration is trying to stop them with everything it can muster. This includes an antitrust investigation and a challenge from the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency to states' authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions outright.
Yet
California has long had the necessary authority under the Clean Air Act, and the voluntary principles would expand consumer choice—including the choice of those consumers who want fuel efficiency. Already, clean-car standards have spurred innovations, bringing to the market SUVs and pickup trucks that achieve 25 miles a gallon or better.
