California Signs Deal With Automakers To Produce Fuel-Efficient Cars
Speaker 1: 00:00 California has done an end run around Trump administration officials efforts to weaken standards on vehicle pollution. Governor Gavin Newsom announced a deal with four major auto makers, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW after secret talks, the deal calls for higher mileage standards in the nation's largest auto market. Then the standards Trump's EPA is pushing as part of coverage from the KPBS climate change desk. Jared Blumenfeld, California Secretary of environmental protection spoke with round table hosts, mark sour about California's deal for tougher pollution standards. Speaker 2: 00:38 Sure. At Blumenfeld. Welcome to midday edition. Speaker 3: 00:41 Thank you. It's good to be with you. Speaker 2: 00:42 We'll start with the deal itself. What does it call for compared with what the Trump administration is trying to put into place? Speaker 3: 00:49 Well, unfortunately the Trump administration is basically holding all the progress that was made on cleaning up cars and light duty trucks. Um, and this is restarting that negotiation. Basically, Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen came to the table and said, you know what, we want to do the right thing. We don't want to be in a place where we have two sets of car rolls, one for California and one for the other 49 states. So this is really a momentous day because these car companies in California are saying we can achieve really meaningful and significant reductions in greenhouse gas, Amir emissions and other pollutants in the lifetime of this agreement. And we can do that in a way that actually we sell less cars in to all 50 states, not just California and the states that follow us. Speaker 2: 01:38 And uh, the 51 mile per gallon standard for the fleet by 2026, that's what a California California's worked out with these four auto makers. Right. And then Trump won at what, about 37 miles per gallon, right? Significantly less. Speaker 3: 01:52 Yeah. So basically what's happened is under the Obama clean car rules, it wasn't a momentous agreement. Everyone, the car manufacturers came together, the California EPA, I'm that guy. I'm done by president Trump. What we're now doing is saying, actually the goal was to get to 49 miles to the gallon by 2025. That was the original goal. And it looked like it was all of us because if just California and the states that follow our standards push, we wouldn't get to that because we only represent 40% of all the cars sold. So nationally we will never gonna get to that, um, really important milestone. And so now we are able to do it just a year later. So under this proposed agreement, if all the car manufacturers agree, we'll get to 49 miles to the gallon by 2026. So it's a year later. But it's really significant cause it brings the whole country along, not just part of it. Speaker 2: 02:46 No, the deal is between California and these four automakers so far the governor hopes more automakers will will come along, but more states are involved too and following California's lead, right? Speaker 3: 02:58 Yeah. So California was the one that really pioneered the clean air act before even the federal government. We realized in southern California we had an air pollution problem. So that allowed us to set our own rules. And one of the significant things about this deal is those car companies that actually saying, yeah, California should have that authority and then not citing that the Trump administration. Um, but what California has done is set these rules and other states have followed suit. So we have 14 other states that that follow California well this would allow us to do and what the governor and we're all asking for is to get all the column manufacturers on board so that we have a national solution to this problem right now. BMW, Ford, VW, even Honda represent about 30% of all the national car sales. We want to get to 100%. Speaker 2: 03:47 Now, Governor Gavin Newsome said, uh, this and announcing his deal with the automakers, what we in California see these regulations as a good thing. The Trump administration is hell bent on rolling them back. They are in complete denialism about climate change. How is this deal being greeted by experts on environmental policy? Speaker 3: 04:07 It's really an important deal because I think when you look at our greenhouse gas emissions, there's many different sources from the energy we use in our house. But in California, about 50% come from our transportation sector, from driving cars and pickups and trucks. And so if we can't reduce the emissions coming from the Tailpipe, we're not gonna be able to be very effective in our battle against climate change. And frankly, the rest of the world is also looking, California's always been Elida when it comes to getting to a zero emission mandate. How can we get more electric vehicles, more hydrogen vehicles onto the road, more plugin electric. You know, we're really committed to doing that and this deal helps us do that. So environmental leaders from around the country of saying, finally, finally, California is able to do a deal with auto makers. And it took, you know, leadership on the behalf of the car companies. Speaker 3: 05:00 It wasn't easy for them that I think really threatened by and worried by what the Trump administration could do. But they were like, you know what? We actually can't build two different cars, one for the California market and one for the rest of the nation. And so they stepped up and said, actually, we're going to just have one standard that we'll meet, you know, let's say Trump does come out with and we, we think you will a very weak standard for cause. Um, we will sue him over that. But at the same time these car companies are saying, yeah, irrespective of what the national rule is coming out of USCPA on the Trump, we will come out with clean a cause in all 50 states. So it's a real winner for the environment and for comment adventures. And for California. Speaker 2: 05:44 Now is it likely that the Trump administration will continue to fight these tougher restrictions on vehicle pollution and how might that play with the public? Speaker 4: 05:53 Okay. Speaker 3: 05:53 I can't predict. I, no one can predict. Probably not even himself. Trump will do tomorrow. But, um, you know what, what we do know is that we need forward movement when it comes to battling air pollution and climate change and what these rules do. And the, and the proposal and framework from today, they're really says these big comment effectors like Ford and Honda, BMW, VW, they're saying, you know what, our future is tied to clean up vehicles. Simply put, we know that there's a demand for electric vehicles. The infrastructure is being put in and they're doubling down on that bet because they're seeing if they don't do that other car companies from other parts of the world who are just going electric, you know, very quickly I'm going to get a share of the market and there'll be left behind. They won't be able to sell that car to China and Europe if they just adopt the policies that the Trump administration is implementing Speaker 2: 06:48 the average year, to be clear, it's an average across an entire fleet. So there's still something popular, SUVs, trucks, light trucks, but with more electric cars that will lower the, uh, the mileage and meet the standard overall in a particular fleet. Right? Speaker 3: 07:03 Yeah. So we're extending the credits given to them for electric vehicles. So it will mean it's, you know, they want to get their fleet average, they need to sell more electric vehicles and we put a cap on it so they can't just meet it by selling electric vehicles. They also need to clean up the rest of their fleet. So it's a combination of selling more electric vehicles. Um, you know, I just recently bought an electric vehicle and um, when, when I, um, bought it, the dealer wasn't that excited. There was a car company that sells, you know, conventional cars and electric and it was actually pretty hard to get them to even sell it to me. I think you'll see a real big change in the market place, um, when, when these rules go into effect or this framework goes into effect because there'll be incentive there. Really the incentive to sell more electric vehicles, getting electric vehicles. The best things I've ever done. And you know, I do not miss going to the gas station. I don't miss paying all the bills. I don't miss changing the oil. I, you know, there's no maintenance at all. So this is the wave of the future. And I think car companies realized that, and that's why you're seeing the deal with California today. Speaker 2: 08:10 I had been speaking with Jared Blumenfeld, a California secretary for environmental protection. Thanks very much. Speaker 1: 08:15 Thank you. And he was speaking to KPBS round table host Mark Sauer for more coverage from the KPBS climate change desks. Go to kpbs.org/climate change.
