Noah Feldman, Columnist

California Has a Weak Case in Emissions Fight With Trump

It doesn’t really make sense to let one state set policy for the whole country.

September 18, 2019 at 5:25 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Don’t inhale.
Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images North America

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The Trump administration is gearing up for its next big legal fight, taking on California’s long-established authority to set vehicle emission standards for new cars. Because the state is so large, this effectively creates national miles-per-gallon targets for any manufacturer selling vehicles in the U.S. Trump would like to take this power away from California and set lower national MPG standards.

The question is, can he do it? Or is this just another example of presidential overreach in an administration that specializes in going too far?