States Sue U.S. to Save Obama-Era Car-Efficiency Rules

(Bloomberg) -- A dozen states led by California and New York sued the Trump administration over its plan to roll back auto-industry regulations put in place by former President Barack Obama to improve fuel-efficiency.

A final rule issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration violates federal law because it doesn't properly penalize automakers when they fail to meet U.S. fuel-efficiency standards, the states said in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal appeals court in Manhattan.

It's the latest clash between Democratic-led states and President Donald Trump, who regularly mocks the science behind climate change and has rolled back numerous environmental regulations. California alone has filed more than two dozen environmental suits against the administration.

“The Trump Administration seeks to make these penalties meaningless,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Fuel-efficient cars on our roads are good for the economy, the environment, and our health.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the rule a “misguided and reckless” policy that will “ignore the realities of climate change.”

The states previously sued the Trump administration for attempting to delay implementation of the tougher Obama-era rules. The states won, and the rules took effect. Now, Trump's administration is overwriting them.

California has also attempted to bypass Trump by reaching fuel-efficiency agreements with automakers on its own.

Read More: Big Automakers Buck Trump Plan With California Emissions Pact

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's press office didn't immediately return a call for comment.

The dispute is over penalties for companies that fail to meet the so-called corporate average fuel economy standards, known as CAFE, the attorneys general of California and New York said in separate statements.

The Obama administration imposed an inflation-adjusted penalty of $14 for every tenth of a mile-per-gallon that an automaker fell below the CAFE standards. That was done under a 2015 law that required federal civil penalties to be adjusted for inflation.

The new rule will reduce that to $5.50 for every tenth of a mile-per-gallon, which is “far below the inflation-adjusted penalty required by law” and therefore illegal, according to the states.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Steve Stroth

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