Ann Carlson in The Nation: California Is Fighting Trump for Clean Air

The president has overturned a 50-year waiver that allows the state to set its own standards—but California, allied with other states, is fighting back.  California’s ZEV program, which requires car companies to ensure that an increasingly large percentage of the cars they sell in the state are electric or fuel cell vehicles, is being targeted by the administration too, and if Trump wins reelection this November, it will almost certainly be dismantled as we head into the crucial post-2025 years, when the auto industry has to be radically reshaped if global CO₂ reduction targets are to be met. “It’s the heart and soul of one of California’s major programs to meet its climate change targets,” says UCLA’s  Ann Carlson.