California Car Rules Won’t Affect Climate Change, NHTSA Says

California’s rules limiting vehicle emissions won’t reduce climate change and do nothing more than “disrupt orderly functioning of the national program,” the Trump administration says in a brief filed in the D.C. Circuit.

A coalition of environmental groups, states, and electric vehicle manufacturers sued after the Environmental Protection Agency withdrew a waiver allowing California to set stricter tailpipe emissions standards and require sales of zero emission vehicles.

The waiver announcement came as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a rule saying California’s standards were preempted by federal law because they are related to fuel-economy standards.

State emissions standards requiring ...