Automakers, Rejecting Trump Pollution Rule, Strike a Deal With California

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.WASHINGTON — Four of the world’s largest automakers, including the Ford Motor Company, have struck a deal with California to reduce tailpipe pollution, in a blow to the Trump administration as it prepares to roll back national vehicle pollution standards and revoke states’ rights to set their own such rules.While Trump administration officials in the White House and Environmental Protection Agency have been working on a plan to drastically weaken Obama-era rules on planet-warming vehicle pollution, four automakers — Ford, Honda, Volkswagen Group of America and BMW of North America — have been holding talks in Sacramento on a plan to move forward with the standards in California, the nation’s largest auto market. The E.P.A. and Transportation Department are expected to announce this summer a new rule that would effectively eliminate the Obama-era rule, which would have required passenger vehicles to achieve an average mileage of about 52.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The rule, which would have significantly lowered vehicle emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution, was a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s policies to combat climate change. The new Trump rule is also expected to revoke the legal authority of California and other states to set their own, stricter, state-level standards.Although Mr. Trump has promoted his plan as a gift to the auto industry, automakers have said it could actually harm them by creating regulatory uncertainty as California and other states claimed the legal right to set their own standards and fought back in the courts. Automakers feared that a mix of state and federal pollution standards could split the United States’ auto market, forcing them to make and sell entirely different types of vehicles in different states. Read MoreAutomakers Tell Trump His Pollution Rules Could Mean ‘Untenable’ Instability and Lower ProfitsJun 6, 2019Canada Signals a Willingness to Challenge Trump on His Clean-Car RollbackJun 26, 201983 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under TrumpJun 2, 2019In striking a deal with California, the automakers are publicly rejecting the Trump plan and following the legal advice of some industry experts who say that it is California, rather than the Trump administration, that is more likely to win the legal battle over climate change pollution. Under the terms of the new deal with California, the automakers selling cars in that state would comply with a slightly looser standard than the original Obama rule. Instead of reaching an average fuel economy of 52.5 miles per gallon by 2025, they would be required to reach a standard of about 51 miles per gallon by 2026. In a joint statement, the four automakers said the agreement with California would lead to “much-needed regulatory certainty.” The deal would allow the companies to “meet both federal and state requirements with a single national fleet, avoiding a p

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