“Automakers are committed to working cooperatively and constructively with California and other states to ensure vehicles are efficient, clean and affordable for everyone,” said John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. , which lobbies on behalf of more than a dozen automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota and Volvo. “Collaboration among governments at all levels will be essential to achieving our shared goals for a cleaner transportation future that benefits all communities and improves America’s economic competitiveness.”

Under the Trump administration, five automakers – Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo – signed an agreement with California in which they voluntarily pledged to continue to meet a stricter emissions standard in the state, even if Mr. Trump had eliminated California’s authority. to apply it.

Mr. Trump’s decision in 2019 to revoke California’s ability to set its own limits on tailpipe emissions was one of his biggest moves to shave policies on climate change. Vehicle regulation is at the heart of the fight against climate change: transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases generated by the United States, accounting for 29% of the country’s total emissions.

A recent report by the International Energy Agency found that countries should end the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 to prevent average global temperatures from rising by 1.5 Celsius, compared to levels of the industrial revolution. This is the threshold beyond which scientists say the Earth faces irreversible damage. The planet has already warmed by an average of around 1.1 degrees Celsius since the late 1800s.

Under the Clean Air Act of 1970, Congress gave California the power to set exhaust standards that were stricter than the federal limits to solve its smog problem.

In 2009, President Barack Obama established federal auto emissions standards based on the California rule, requiring passenger vehicles to achieve an average mileage of 51 miles per gallon by 2025, up from about 38 miles per gallon in the past. ‘era.

These rules set the auto industry on a path to aggressively ramp up electric vehicle production by 2025, until Mr. Trump revokes them in 2020. He wrote on Twitter: “The administration Trump revokes California’s federal emissions waiver to produce significantly less. expensive cars for the consumer, while making cars significantly SAFER. He said the change would lead to increased car production and new “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS”, and said the new cars would be “extremely environmentally friendly”.