As President Trump's nominee to head the Environmental
Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, cleared a key committee vote
this week, a conflict between EPA and the State of California over
tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions shows no signs of movement, even
as a deadline looms to finalize the Trump administration's
revised tailpipe emissions rules.
The drama began this past April, when EPA and NHTSA proposed a rule that would roll back Obama-era
fuel efficiency measures by proposing to cap the standards at a
37-mpg fleet average from 2020 through 2026 – substantially
lower than the 50 mpg average imposed by 2025 under the existing
rules. Perhaps even more controversially, the Trump administration
also signaled that it would consider revoking the waiver granted to
the State of California under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) that
allows the state to impose – with EPA's approval –
stricter standards for tailpipe GHG emissions for new vehicles than
what the federal government
