In the ongoing sword fight between California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the Trump administration over higher vehicle emissions standards, Becerra's latest parry is the filing of a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Against the background of the Pacific Ocean on Santa Barbara's Mesa, Becerra, standing with Assemblymember Monique Limón, announced today that California, 23 other states, Los Angeles, and Manhattan had joined to sue for the right to implement California's greenhouse-gas and zero-emission vehicle standards, which the Trump administration has been working to weaken.
Auto
giants Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW had made a pact in July with California
— one of the largest auto markets in the United States —to observe the cleaner
air standards the state required, the Washington Post reported.
But under pressure from President Trump, whose Justice Department began an
antitrust investigation against some automakers, according to the New
York Times, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota announced in late October
they would side with the feds on fuel economy standards.
Becerra
gestured to the ocean behind him as he spoke, citing the oil spill 50 years ago
that prompted President Richard Nixon to say it had "touched the
conscience of the American people" when he first set up the EPA and signed
the Clean Air Act, which gives California the right to set stringent pollution
standards.