‘This is a stupid policy’: Emissions become latest front in California-Trump war

“For Trump to now destroy a law first enacted at the request of Ronald Reagan five decades ago is a betrayal and an assault on the health of Americans everywhere,” California Gov. Jerry Brown said. | Alex Wong/Getty Images ‘This is a stupid policy’: Emissions become latest front in California-Trump war

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s political leadership is vowing to repel the Trump administration’s push to undercut the state’s stringent vehicle emissions standards, setting up the latest showdown between the nation’s most populous state and an antagonistic White House.

Climate change has been a defining issue for Gov. Jerry Brown in his final term, and the governor — who has engaged in an increasingly acrimonious war of words with the Trump administration, recently branding former EPA chief Scott Pruitt “outlaw Pruitt” — vowed Thursday to “fight this stupidity in every conceivable way.”

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in 2006 signed into law AB-32, the landmark legislation that represented the nation’s first cap on greenhouse gas emissions, posted a caustic tweet in reaction to Trump’s “stupid policy,’’ saying: “If the president thinks he can win this fight, he’s out of his mind.”

While California has already racked up a long list of challenges to the Trump administration, the struggle over the Clean Air Act puts at stake the California’s authority to pursue an ambitious climate change agenda, taking other states along as it forges a path that stands in direct contrast to the federal government.

“For Trump to now destroy a law first enacted at the request of Ronald Reagan five decades ago is a betrayal and an assault on the health of Americans everywhere,” said Brown. “Under his reckless scheme, motorists will pay more at the pump, get worse gas mileage and breathe dirtier air. California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible.”

Elected officials here have been preemptively warning for weeks that the Trump administration would unravel the state’s decades of progress on cleansing the air, invoking the smog-shrouded Los Angeles of a dirtier era.

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They’re also trying to maintain California’s continued stewardship of an aggressive effort to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and blunt the effects of climate change — a push that relies to a substantial extent on California’s ability to regulate tailpipe emissions and mandate clean car sales.

California has already sued the administration to preserve a single national vehicle emissions standard, and within hours of the Trump administration’s long-anticipated announcement that it would seek to block California from enacting tougher rules, Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced he would lead 19 state attorneys general in a new lawsuit.

“California is about progress and 21st century innovation and technology. We’re not about backsliding,” Becerra said after opening a Los Angeles press conference by noting the fires scorching the state – visible signs of an altering climate.

“The earth is not flat and climate change is real. Can someone please inform the folks at the White House?” Becerra said.

The number of attorneys general joining Becerra’s suit underscored how the issue is not restricted to California: a dozen states already follow California’s greenhouse gas standards or its zero-emission vehicle mandate, creating a national coalition opposed to the White House rollback.

California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols said in a statement that her agency, which is on the leading edge of California’s climate change regime, would examine “how the Administration can possibly justify its absurd conclusion that weakening standards to allow dirtier, less efficient vehicles will actually save lives and money.”

In an outpouring of furious statements, members of Congress vowed defiance. Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein introduced a Senate resolution backing California’s clean air autonomy, with a parallel measure submitted in the House.

“The administration has again put a target on California’s back and they have chosen to protect pollution over people,” Harris said in a statement.

In an appeal for reason to Republican lawmakers, Schwarzenegger also noted that it was Reagan who requested California’s waiver from the federal government “to clear our own air.”

“Let’s be clear: this is a stupid policy, and no one asked for this,’’ he wrote. “Businesses prefer certainty, not policies that change with the whim of each White House.’’

Schwarzenegger added that should the White House and the GOP ignore California’s wishes, “I’d remind them that California has won this battle before. We will win again.”