Not all regulations are
anti-business. The fact is, sensible regulations are a benefit for ethical
companies. Businesses which have abandoned the moral compass try to cut costs
in a way that harms their employees, the public, or the environment. This gives
them a competitive advantage over those which do not have such inclinations.
“Four of the world’s
largest automakers have struck a deal with California to reduce automobile
emissions, siding with the state in its fight with President Trump over one of
his most consequential regulatory rollbacks.” [1] The
Trump administration’s plans to “eliminate an Obama-era regulation designed to
reduce vehicle emissions that contribute to global warming.” But “California
and 13 other states have vowed to keep enforcing the stricter rules,
potentially splitting the United States auto market in two.”
Now the automakers don’t
want to build two kinds of cars for the United States market, one meeting the
California standards and the other meeting the relaxed requirements of the
Trump administration. It makes sense for them to work out a standard that will
apply across the country. And so “they opened secretive talks with California
regulators in which the automakers — Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen of America,
Honda and BMW — won rules that are slightly less restrictive than the Obama
standards and that they can apply to vehicles sold nationwide.”
The President’s
countermeasure will be to try to “revoke the legal authority of California and
other states to impose their own emissions standards.” [2] A
belief in federalism and state’s rights is situational, you see. So, with that
looming threat, it behooves us to examine whether he could actually achieve
such a prohibition.
And the answer is yes.
The Clean Air Act prohibits a “State or any political subdivision” to “adopt or
attempt to enforce any standard relating to the control of emissions from new
motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines….” [3]
There is an exception for a state which adopted emission standards prior to
March 30, 1966 where the state’s requirements are just as stringent, and then
the state must request a waiver from the EPA. But the only state which had such
emission standards prior to the cutoff date was California, and the EPA can
refuse permission if, among other things, it finds that the state is being “arbitrary
and capricious….” So take a guess how that’s going to turn out.
What we have here are car
manufacturers who are interested in being good environmental citizens when it
comes to emissions, and President Trump wants to put them at a competitive
disadvantage as against companies more solicitous of their bottom lines. This
is because he proclaims himself a nonbeliever in basic science. And our
educational system is so bad he gets away with it.