The California Air Resource Board (CARB) has been best –known for enacting stricter than national air quality and emissions standards. These stricter regulations and EPA standards have been adopted by many of the states around the country but it appears that the Federal government is working toward a change to this system which is currently authorized under standards and practices that were set by the previous presidential administration. The current administration is planning to set its own set of standards and roll back some of the emissions regulations which would be compromised by the CARB regulations.
Currently, there are sixteen other states that follow the CARB regulations and with the plant to make CARB unlawful and rollback the emissions regulations, California and the other sixteen states involved are joining together in a lawsuit to blog the EPA changes that were proposed earlier in May. Right now the two different sets of standards, national and California, force automakers to abide by a more taxing level in order to sell vehicles that can legally enter these seventeen states that are part of the group that works hard to make sure the air quality is at a higher level than the government standards.
What’s the Argument According to the EPA?
Right now the EPA and NHTSA are arguing over a 1975 law that created the first fuel economy standards. This law prohibits states from enacting their own rules. Because of this stance, the seventeen states are on the side of making the air cleaner and offering what they feel is a more sensible climate policy to make sure the cities and areas of each state can offer clean air. It is expected that California and the environmental groups along with clean tech manufacturers will fight back against this change in the courts.
For the past few years, the air quality in California and states that have adopted the CARB regulations has improved with much lower levels of smog and higher levels of clean air that can be ideal for breathing and health. The EPA 44-member Science Advisory Board has voted to review the rollback which is at the center of this debate to lean on the scientific validity of the decision. We should expect there to be a bitter battle between California and Washington, DC with this contested argument that will be a centerpiece for the future of the automotive world.
If you love a gas guzzler and want to be able to drive it in California and the other states involved, you’ll likely be on the side of the EPA and the current leadership in DC. On the other hand, if you see other countries in the world already discussing and working toward cleaner air and lowered emissions standards with higher fuel mileage standards, it’s likely you’re going to side with CARB and expect to allow states to uphold the higher standards. The third option is for the EPA to adopt the regulations of CARB and apply these regulations and standards across all fifty states.
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