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Just who are the hoop jumpers, do we want to trade globally or not?
Trump has a pro fossil fuel agenda and thinks the more we and the world consume the better off we are.
We already produce the highest amount of carbon per person for countries our size.
The auto companies are in a difficult position because globally, they are being pushed to compete for a market that is increasingly demanding advanced technology vehicles. China is mandating that all vehicles sold be zero-emission, either battery or fuel cell vehicles, within a very short period of time. And so they need to be focusing their efforts, their engineering efforts and their internal planning efforts, on becoming competitive in that market. They can’t be operating with confusion over what the standards are going to be for their base product, the core of their business, which is still the internal combustion engine.
So the great advantage of the planned standards was that it set a path for a decade of peace and stability and planning, and everybody knew what the rules were going to be. By throwing a monkey wrench into this approach, what the Trump administration did is create confusion and anxiety. The companies that approached us were looking for a way to create a zone of peace by agreeing on a set of standards voluntarily… that included consideration of improvements they would be making in the cars they sell throughout the country, and avoid aggressive enforcement actions or other collateral damage while California and the federal government try to resolve our differences about how to move forward.
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