By Coral Davenport and Hiroko Tabuchi for the New York Times
Four of the world’s largest automakers, including the Ford Motor Company, have struck a deal with California to reduce tailpipe pollution.
In coming weeks, the Trump administration is expected to all but eliminate an Obama-era regulation designed to reduce vehicle emissions that contribute to global warming. California and 13 other states have vowed to keep enforcing the stricter rules, potentially splitting the United States auto market in two.
With car companies facing the prospect of having to build two separate lineups of vehicles, they opened secretive talks with California regulators in which the automakers — Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen of America, Honda and BMW — won rules that are slightly less restrictive than the Obama standards and that they can apply to vehicles sold nationwide.
The agreement provides “much-needed regulatory certainty,” the companies said in a joint statement while enabling them to “meet both federal and state requirements with a single national fleet, avoiding a patchwork of regulations.”
Under the agreement, the four automakers, which together make up about 30 percent of the United States auto market, would face slightly looser standard than the original Obama rule: Instead of reaching an average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, they would be required to hit about 51 miles per gallon by 2026.
The Trump administration has said it plans to roll back the Obama-era standard to about 37 miles per gallon.
Increasing fuel efficiency means vehicles burn less gas and subsequently emit less greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere.
Although California won the backing of the four companies in its showdown with the federal government, the Trump administration is still expected to try to revoke California’s right to set its own auto emissions standards. The state has vowed to fight that effort all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, and the four automakers, by siding with California, are in effect voting that they expect California to win that battle.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said he was “very confident” that more automakers would join the deal in coming days, and one auto executive familiar with the negotiations agreed that was likely.
