A dozen states led by California and New York sued President Donald Trump's administration over its plan to roll back auto-industry regulations put in place by former President Barack Obama to improve fuel efficiency.
A final rule issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration violates federal law because it doesn't properly penalize automakers when they fail to meet U.S. fuel-efficiency standards, the states said in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal appeals court in Manhattan.
"The Trump Administration seeks to make these penalties meaningless," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. "Fuel-efficient cars on our roads are good for the economy, the environment, and our health."
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the rule a "misguided and reckless" policy that will "ignore the realities of climate change."
The states previously sued the Trump administration for attempting to delay implementation of the tougher Obama-era rules. The states won, and the rules took effect. Now, Trump's administration is overwriting them.
The dispute is over penalties for companies that fail to meet the so-called corporate average fuel economy standards, the attorneys general of California and New York said in separate statements.
The Obama administration imposed an inflation-adjusted penalty of $14 for every tenth of a mile-per-gallon that an automaker fell below the standards. That was done under a 2015 law that required federal civil penalties to be adjusted for inflation.
The new rule will reduce that to $5.50 for every tenth of a mile-per-gallon, which is "far below the inflation-adjusted penalty required by law" and therefore illegal, according to the states.
Business on 08/03/2019