How the EPA’s environmental about-face could upend
California’s climate efforts

The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to repeal or weaken more than two dozen regulations could deliver a direct blow to California policies on air and water quality standards, electric vehicle initiatives and efforts to curb planet-harming greenhouse gas emissions.

But environmental groups were quick to condemn the plan as an abdication of the EPA’s responsibilities to Americans. In climate-conscious California, they say, it could reverse decades of progress.

“California has been the leading state in advancing the clean transportation industry and market,” said John Boesel, president of the clean transportation nonprofit CALSTART.

Boesel noted that the EPA in January already failed to act on a plan known as the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, which would have helped phase out heavy-duty diesel trucks in the state.

But the new changes could create even more hurdles for California’s EV transition by potentially compromising federal tax incentives, hindering the expansion of a national charging infrastructure and encouraging fossil fuel production.

“A lot of hard work went into developing the regulations and setting a direction for the future of the United States, and many companies have made major investments in a cleaner transportation future,” Boesel said. “Having this kind of regulatory uncertainty will undermine a lot of the investment and possibly discourage innovation.”

Coverage also seen in Yahoo News