California is leading an 18 state coalition suing the Environmental Protection Agency over clean car standards. The governor and the attorney general say the feds broke the law and California is fighting back.
Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the lawsuit this morning over recently announced changes to greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars. Governor Brown says we're already in a crisis. "The fires, the floods, the mudslides, the rising sea levels, the disease vectors, the migrations, the turmoil that's going to come about. This is real stuff," Brown said at a morning press conference.
Brown claims the EPA offered no evidence to support their decision. AG Becerra says the lawsuit sends a message to Washington. "My message to the EPA and administrator (Scott) Pruitt is simple - do your job," Becerra said. "Regulate carbon pollution from vehicles. Defend the clean car standards."
Becerra says this is the 32nd lawsuit California has filed against the Trump administration. But both Brown and Becerra say this is different. It's not politics, they say this is a matter of life and death.
Governor Brown and Attorney General Becerra were joined at the capitol press conference by Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board which is also a party to the lawsuit.