EPA REJECTS Automaker's Sweetheart Deal With California Over Tighter Emission Restrictions

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Ditto!

MPG I don't care, curbing emissions including green house gasses, then I care. This seems to be about MPG targets only so it's not a huge thing. Dont bother with MPG being related to emissions, I say set those targets and let the engineers and scientist figure out how to get there.

This is a joke. The EPA is a puppet of the WH instead of running its own mandate. If the agreed to standard stretches the Obama target by a year and is way ahead of the figures the current Administration wants, everyone wins. Especially the WH because they get more than want they wanted. But no, this WH was cut out of the deal and they have hurt feelings. America loses again.

Actually the EPA as a federal entity should have ultimate rule. The states can ask for exceptions but not dictate unique requirements to the Federal branch.

California in this case is acting as if they are independent of the federal regulation but yet they still depend on them for funding.

@Agent009 - And therein lies the rub. What if a group of US States what to be ahead of the Gov't position? In this case it is emissions. What about background checks? Banning certain guns? Etc. Wanting to be better than the federal standard should not be a detriment, especially if industry partners are already onboard. Also this impacts the 13 other US States that were going to follow this standard too.

Just in case anyone was wondering this is the position the EPA has taken to reject the deal California made with the automakers. It's logic has been refuted. The EPA's made is clean air water and soil, not imagined traffic deaths.

"But the EPA is, so far, sticking to its guns. The feds have tried to make the case that less stringent emissions standards will allow consumers to buy newer, safer vehicles, and avoid traffic deaths — a claim that both former EPA staff and outside experts have refuted" - Vice Media.

Actually this is how the EPA and California (and the US states that follow its policies co-exist within the bounds of the law). So as you can read, so long as California protects its citizens equally well as a federal law they are ok. And they are ok to also best that federal standard with a more restrictive one. And this exemption is written into the Clean Air Act.

1. Where does California get this special authority?

The Clean Air Act empowers the EPA to regulate air pollution from motor vehicles. To promote uniformity, the law generally bars states from regulating car emissions.

But when the Clean Air Act was passed, California was already developing innovative laws and standards to address its unique air pollution problems. So Congress carved out an exemption. As long as California’s standards protect public health and welfare at least as strictly as federal law, and are necessary “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions,” the law requires the EPA to grant California a waiver so it can continue to apply its own regulations. California has received numerous waivers as it has worked to reduce vehicle emissions by enacting ever more stringent standards since the 1960s.

Other states can’t set their own standards, but they can opt to follow California’s motor vehicle emission regulations. Currently, 12 states and the District of Columbia have adopted California’s standards.

Sorry but unelected bureaucrats without accountability should not have the authority to mandate anything including the ply of toilet paper which is beyond their mental capacity to understand. That is why they are government workers, they couldn’t make it in the real world. The reason they need better health care is due to the sharpness of staples and paper cuts.

Anything coming from this current administration is a farce and a threat to the future of the environment. GOP supporters need to turn off Faux news and Hannity.