Chapter 6- Week 10 Assignment

 Larry Feirman State & Local Government

March 23, 2021 Assignment -Module 10

Q: How did California’s state legislature and/or local governments use their powers during either the Obama or Trump presidencies to preserve state and local values in the face of conflicting Federal policies and directions?

A: The incident I most remember, and there were many, was President Trump’s move to revoke California’s authority to set car-emission standards.  It had wider effects and was part of a broader push to thwart the states that voted against him.  He also took other California initiatives during his reign with sanctuary cities and the wildfire-disasters.  He tried harnessing his Federal powers to punish California.  He should have known better than to take on the bluest of the blue states!

In one of his many infamous tweets, he advised that the Environmental Protection Agency would revoke a federal waiver that California received from former President Barack Obama, allowing California to set its own standards for reducing vehicle emissions. No previous president had attempted to revoke a waiver granted to California since the state was granted the unique authority to set its own emissions rules under the Clean Air Act of 1970 (thirteen other states and the District of Columbia, all of which voted against Trump in 2016 had adopted the California rules as permitted under the Clean Air Act).

The environmental stakes in the dispute between Trump and California were enormous. The Trump administration’s analysis found that freezing the fuel-economy standard would increase carbon emissions from the average new vehicle in 2025 by 37 percent. The only ones that would benefit from this rollback were the oil companies. 

Oddly enough, the auto manufacturers were not asking the Trump administration to pursue this step. No president had ever tried to revoke a waiver to California granted by a previous administration. The jockeying then involved the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.  He insisted that Trump didn’t have the executive authority to do this.

President Trump’s process shown on a number of occasions was to incite vs. convince.  It was all about appearance by Trump to impress his “base. The Federal government under Trump continued to find new ways to launch offensives against the states that he viewed as adversaries.

In our text (pg.138), the “Relationship With The Executive Branch”, there was alignment at the state, county and city level, but not with our illustrious Federal gang.