The decision to ease environmental standards for passenger vehicles made by the Trump administration on Monday could spark a political and legal battle with California, which still wants to maintain stricter regulations.
The standards for the period from 2022 to 2025, known as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), were set by the previous Democratic administration of Barack Obama shortly before Republican Donald Trump took office. They called for a gradual increase in vehicle autonomy and achieving a target of 4.32 liters per hundred kilometers by 2025.
– The conclusions of the Obama administration were wrong, emphasized Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a statement on Monday.
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– During the Obama administration, the process of evaluating the standards was conducted too quickly for political reasons and was based on recommendations that did not reflect reality, setting excessively high demands, he warned.
– The EPA is currently reviewing California’s exemption, the agency adds in the statement.
California can, thanks to the exemption, set stricter regulations in this area than the rest of the country, which it has been doing for several decades, encouraging car manufacturers to adapt to its, rather than federal, regulations in order to sell their vehicles there.
