Los Angeles city officials Friday responded to President Donald Trump’s proposals to revoke a federal waiver on California’s reduced automobile emission standards by joining a lawsuit and proposing legislative action.
Following a campaign election where newly elected City Councilman John Lee was challenged on his environmental policies, the west San Fernando Valley representative on Friday suggested Los Angeles should oppose any federal efforts to revoke the emissions standards of the Clean Air Act.
The act, also known as the “California Waiver,” was threatened to be revoked by Trump earlier this week as he flew in to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Trump said federal standards and California’s would not be that different and the less restrictive standards create more jobs.
The waiver, “has served a pivotal role in the production and advancement of fuel-efficient vehicles in the country thereby effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change,” Lee said in his resolution.
Calls to Lee’s office were not immediately returned.
Leading up to the August special election, it was Lee’s opponent, Loraine Lundquist, who championed Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Green New Deal, a plan to have the city’s infrastructure produce zero carbon emissions by 2050, but Lee defeated her by 3.1% of the vote.
Lee’s resolution to oppose scrapping the waiver was submitted the same day the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office filed as a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit initiated to stop waiver revocation. The lawsuit was put forth by the California Attorney General, and 23 other states joined the effort on Friday.
This will be the sixth case since Trump took office regarding emissions and environmental policies in which the City Attorney’s Office has filed as a plaintiff in federal court, City Attorney Mike Feuer said.
“California has rules for a reason, and for goodness sake, the progress that we’ve been making cannot be rolled back now,” Feuer said. “After (taking) other steps on air and water and climate change (the Trump administration) designed to roll back environmental protections, it says, `We’re going to make it harder for California, which has a defined meaningful air-pollution problem, to regulate,’ after congress gave California this waiver.”
Feuer said his office felt compelled to join the lawsuit because of California’s high car volume and heavy smog levels in major cities.
“It’s incredibly important that the state continue to have the authority that we need, authority that would enable us to make sure cars have … less pollution,” he said.