This past Monday, California finalized a legal settlement with the world’s four major automakers that forces them to comply with strict fuel-efficiency laws and standards that will cut down on climate-warming tailpipe emissions.
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Ford, Honda, BMW, and Volkswagen all announced they reached a deal with the state of California last summer to comply with the state’s strict standards, while the Trump administration had tried to remove Obama-era rules on the fuel economy in the state. “We went into this voluntarily, but it is now binding, it’s enforceable,” said Spencer Reeder, director of government affairs at Audi America, who helped negotiate the agreement on behalf of Volkswagen, Audi’s parent company.
The terms mandated by California demands that the automakers will be required to increase the average fuel economy from 38 mpg currently, to 51 mpg by 2026. Improving fuel efficiency will allow vehicles to burn less gasoline, and emit less greenhouse gas pollutants into the atmosphere.
Stanley Young, a spokesman for California’s Air Resources Board, said the agreement achieved “continuous annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while saving consumers money.” The deal extends far beyond California’s border, with the effects being felt in thirteen other states. From Oregon to Washington, many states follow California’s state-level standards and have agreed to enforce the same deal.
State-level standards are expected to be decided by the Supreme Court, which will judge a multistate lawsuit that seeks to nullify the Trump administration’s federal rule. The automakers sided with California believe their agreement will lock them into selling more fuel-efficient, lower-polluting vehicles across all the states, regardless of who takes the White House in November.
“This represents consistency from a policy point of view,” said Bob Holycross, vice president for sustainability, environment, and safety engineering with Ford. “We have to have regulatory certainty beyond just political cycles governing the investments we make,” he said.
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