Greenhouse Gases and the California Waiver Again

Peter Van DorenGeneral Motorsrecently announced that it is terminating its participation in the Trump administration ’s lawsuit to deny California the ability to set more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. As I havediscussed before, CAFE standards, which were originally devised to reduce fuel use during the oil shocks of the 1970s, have been repurposed as climate change (CO2) emissions controls. But the standards are aninefficient method to reduce CO2 emissions.Last year, the Trump administration froze future CAFE standards at 2020 levels and denied California ’s request to set higher fuel economy standards than the federal government. California and 22 other states filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration ’s denial of the waiver from the more lax federal standard. General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler joined the lawsuit on the side of the administration while Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen, and Volvoagreed to follow California ’s more stringent standard. General Motors’ decision to stop participation in the lawsuit increases the likelihood that the ultimate result for the country will be California’s standard of 51 mpg rather than the Trump 40 mpg.This ongoing saga and its portrayal in the media illustrate a deficiency of much environmental journalism. Environmental journalists write about these disputes as if there is a good side and a bad side. The bad side opposes more stringent environmental regul...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs