LA Times Calls It Like It Is
This morning, Trump revoked California’s right to control auto emissions in the state. He wants to revoke the idea that allows California to set its own tailpipe emissions standards for cars and light-duty trucks, as it has done for more than five decades.
Five decades – you know, back when Ronald Reagan was one of the people who formulated the idea of a state waiver for emissions standards.
Oddly, even auto manufacturers agreed to meet California’s higher standards. So, what’s the hang-up?
A dozen other states (all but Pennsylvania are on the coasts) and the District of Columbia follow California’s standards, so revoking the waiver will have a broad impact particularly in the Northeast and on the West Coast.
Hmm, how did those states vote in the 2016 presidential election?
And which President touted the waivers as part of his environmental legacy?
The Times editorial board has called Trump’s maneuver on the waiver for what it is: “Sometimes it seems like the only consistent policy coming out of the White House these days is vindictiveness.”
No, pretty much batcrap crazy is consistent, too.
Funny how the only time Republicans see States Rights as a valid argument is when racism decides to get involved. And then only selectively so.
Of course, the auto-makers agreed to the policy.
1] They want to be able to sell cars in the drivingest state in the union, don’t they? 2] It’s easier and cheaper to build cars to one standard than to tool various factories according to 50+ different standards. So you pick the toughest — then everybody’s happy.
Trump wouldn’t understand either of those reasons though. It takes a person who comprehends how business works — operating costs and profits and stuff like that — to get it.
1If you know your national weather patterns, the flow of the atmosphere generally goes from West to East. And frequently the flow from the Southwest ends up in the Northeast. So the reason for the Northeast following the CA standard is to avoid taking the rest of the country’s effluent and making it even worse. CA understands that noxious tailpipe emissions make life physically difficult, and the standards were set when there were fewer cars on the road.
Dotard is trying to smoke us into submission…
2Either that, or he’s trying to increase the value of used cars that meet the current CA standards.
Who would want to own a pollution fount…
3It feels weird to say that Pennsylvania isn’t located on a coast.
4In Switzerland, a giant new machine is sucking carbon …
Too late. Mothers and unborn children have been doing that already.
Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can result in pollution particles reaching the fetus through the placenta, a new study suggests.
This could negatively impact the baby’s health throughout their lifespan, per the study, published this week inNature Communications, as adult diseases may originate in the fetal stage as the result of in utero environmental exposures.
The placenta was previously thought to be impenetrable, reports CNN, and any miscarriages or premature births linked to pollution were thought to be the result of impacts on the health of the mother.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/865913/polluted-air-particles-reach-fetuses-womb-study-finds
5I have another reason to be glad my son, his wife and child have left the Bay area and moved up to Portland OR.
6These standards are a law – you remember when the Congress and Senate agree on something and the President signs it? Trump can’t overturn it on his own. Once again, lawsuits will be coming!
7States rights, uh huh.
JJ, any thoughts on the debate?
8slipstream hisownself grew up in Southern California, land of the freeways, in the 60s and 70s. Most days you couldn’t see the mountains in the distance. Some days you couldn’t see the hills not very far away. On those days your chest hurt, and your eyes too. Smog.
California’s lead in imposing pollution controls on cars has had obvious health benefits far outweighing the cost of the pollution controls. Tens of thousands of people have not died of lung cancer (including possibly my humble self) because California took action to limit the crap poured into the air.
I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This certainly includes the right to breath air which doesn’t choke me to death.
Thank you, California.
9Clean air, clean water, clean food. Who needs ’em. What’s he going to do next? Knock down the codes and standards for earthquake and hurricane resistant buildings? Set zoo animals free?
10I am betting that California will sue and win.
11You mean, you really want your country to run on 50 differing sets of rules ‘n’ regs?
Tricky!
Still ‘n’ all, at least the lawyers will be happy!
12@slipstream—I, too, grew up in Southern California, but in the 50s. Yes, it was as bad as you say here. I can remember days when the smog was so dense we were told not to go out on the playground at school. And when your chest hurt to breathe, that’s a pretty scary thing for a kid to have to deal with. The only reason Trump is doing this is to roll back anything and everything Obama did and to punish California because it didn’t go for him in the election. And now, he’s saying that California’s homeless situation is an “environmental” problem, with drug addicts’ needles washing out to sea and polluting the ocean. C’mon, man.
13Next phase: sending an army of MAGATs out to add lead to every gas tank.
What a sick, pathetic creature Trump is.
14We apparently have never had a real constitution. What we have is so full of holes that it won’t hold water, and Trump has stepped through every hole not to mention the new ones he has created. This is frightening, not funny. We have a dictator in power who is ruling this nation with “executive orders” tied to every whim and caprice of his overactive, unintelligent mind.
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