Four automakers issued a statement on Thursday in which they said that they have reached an agreement with California about fuel efficiency rules and with that move they bypassed the effort made by the Trump administration to strip California the right to fight climate change.
According to Reuters, California and other states had vowed to enforce stricter Obama-era emissions standards, after President Donald Trump proposed rolling back the federal rules. Automakers had worried that court battles between state and federal governments could create years of uncertainty for manufacturers.
BEW AG, Ford Motor Co, Volkswagen AG, and Honda Motor Co Ltd said in the joint statement that the accord could help maintain a nationwide set of fuel efficiency requirements.
‘’Ensuring that America’s vehicles are efficient, safe and affordable is a priority for us all. A 50-state solution has always been our preferred path forward and we understand that any deal involved compromise,’’ they wrote.
They also said that the deal will let them meet both federal and state requirements with a single national fleet to ensure meaningful greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of California Air Resources Board, was talking to Reuters on the topic as she said that the automakers did not want to face the expense, distraction and the bad publicity that comes from being part of a big rollback on clean cars, adding that the state hoped to turn the voluntary agreement into enforceable agreements and that the companies had agreed not to legally challenge California’s vehicles regulatory authority.
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