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In 2011, then President Barrack Obama introduced new standards in carbon emissions involving vehicles that forced car companies to make important changes in how they made vehicles. Now that Donald Trump is the president and Scott Pruitt is head of the EPA, those standards are set to be rolled back. 12 states are not happy about this development at all and are threatening to sue the agency if the rollback is implemented.
The kerfuffle actually started back in March 15th, when Trump ordered the EPA to look into the emissions standards that the Obama administration had put in place. On that day, California Governor Jerry Brown took car companies to task, saying that their plans to renege on their agreement is breaking a promise to the American people, Consumerist recently reported.
It seems this had no effect since the EPA decided to try rolling back the standards anyway in order to make things easier for car manufacturers. In response, attorney generals of 12 states, with New York AG Eric Schneiderman in the lead wrote a letter announcing their objection to Pruitt’s decision and making a very pointed threat.
“Any effort to roll back these affordable, achievable, and common-sense vehicle emission standards would be both irrational and irresponsible,” Schneiderman said. “We stand ready to vigorously and aggressively challenge President Trump’s dangerous anti-environmental agenda in court – as we already have successfully done.”
Among the signatories are AGs from Washington D.C. and Connecticut, as well as Delaware and Iowa. Maine and Maryland joined in too, along with Massachusetts and Oregon.
While the US and the rest of the world are well on their way towards a more sustainable future, it would seem that a lot of the responsibility for making the process expedient has fallen to local government units and private companies, Futurism notes. The leadership at the Federal level seems to have abdicated its role in actually ensuring a clean environment for Americans. This will likely remain the case for as long as Trump and his cohorts remain in the White House.
