The Trump administration will propose a plan to freeze emissions standards at 2020 levels while undercutting California’s legal waiver to set emissions standards that are stricter than those set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to three sources that Bloomberg spoke to.
The news of the Trump administration’s plan was leaked in late May, but Bloomberg spoke to people who had seen the plans recently. The proposed rollback of emissions standards is not expected to change substantially.
The Trump administration’s EPA has spent the past year and a half laying the groundwork to roll back emissions standards that were finalized by the Obama administration’s EPA during President Obama’s final month in office, although the rules had been years in the making. Obama’s plan would have required automakers to build cars that are increasingly more fuel efficient every few years until 2025.