Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Wednesday opposed President Donald Trump’s move to cancel new vehicle fuel economy standards put in place by the Obama administration.
The standards would require all new passenger vehicles to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
“Climate change is the single greatest threat to humanity’s future. Reducing emissions through federal fuel economy standards is key to making America more competitive, and to meeting our commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement,” Garcetti said. “That’s why I’m adding a record number of electric vehicles to our fleet in Los Angeles, and working with `climate mayors’ across the nation to create more demand for EVs that will help cut cities’ operating costs and lower emissions.”
Trump made the announcement during an appearance at a vehicle testing facility in Michigan Wednesday.
“We are going to ensure that any regulations we have protect and defend your jobs. We’re going to be fair,” Trump said.
A review of the new fuel economy standards would take up to a year to accomplish, as it would require regulatory and legal reviews by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department, according to the New York Times.
The Paris Climate Agreement, signed by then-President Barack Obama and nearly 200 countries in 2015, committed the United States to reducing greenhouse gas emissions between 26 and 28 percent below what they were in 2005.
Trump vowed during his presidential campaign to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement and also said in 2012 on Twitter that the concept of global warming was created “by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Garcetti has made electric vehicles key to his environmental efforts in Los Angeles.
In June 2016, he announced the police department had added 100 electric vehicles to its fleet, which gave the city 199 EVs in total and made the city’s EV fleet the largest in the nation. The mayor also signed a City Council motion in December that creates an electric car-sharing program in several low-income neighborhoods.
“Clean vehicles are foundational to our health and prosperity, vital to protecting our residents from the harmful impacts of climate change, and critical to creating the 21st century economy,” Garcetti said Wednesday.
— City News Service