Defying Trump, 5 Automakers Lock In a Deal on Greenhouse Gas Pollution
The five — Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo — sealed a binding agreement with California to follow the state’s stricter tailpipe emissions rules.
By Coral Davenport, New York Times Aug. 17, 2020
WASHINGTON — California on Monday finalized a legal settlement with five of the world’s largest automakers that binds them to comply with its stringent state-level fuel efficiency standards that would cut down on climate-warming tailpipe emissions.
Monday’s agreement adds legal teeth to a deal that California and four of the companies outlined in principle last summer, and it comes as a rejection of President Trump’s new, looser federal rules on fuel economy, which would allow more pollution into the atmosphere.
Mr. Trump was blindsided last summer when the companies — Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen — announced that they had reached a secret deal with California to comply with that state’s standards, even as the Trump administration was working to roll back Obama-era rules on fuel economy. A fifth company, Volvo, said in March that it intended to join the agreement and is part of the legal settlement that was finalized on Monday.
After last summer’s announcement, Mr. Trump escalated his legal and rhetorical attacks on California. He accelerated the release of a rule to revoke California’s legal authority to set its own state-level standards, writing on Twitter that doing so would “produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER.” His administration dismissed the California deal as a meaningless “voluntary stunt.”
But with the publication of Monday’s legal agreement, the “stunt” is no longer voluntary.
“We went into this voluntarily, but it is now binding, it’s enforceable,” said Spencer Reeder, director of government affairs and sustainability at Audi of America, who helped to negotiate the agreement on behalf of Volkswagen, Audi’s parent company.
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.
