WASHINGTON -- Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and several other major automakers said Tuesday that they have dropped their support for a Trump-era lawsuit that sought to block California from setting its own strict fuel-economy standards, signaling that the auto industry is ready to work with President Joe Biden to reduce climate-warming emissions.
The decision by the companies was widely expected, coming after General Motors and Nissan dropped their support for the effort just weeks after the presidential election. But the shift may help the Biden administration move quickly to reinstate national fuel-efficiency standards that would control planet-warming auto pollution, this time with support from industry giants that fought such regulations for years.
The auto giants' announcements come on top of a 2020 commitment by five other companies -- Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo -- that they would abide by California's tough standards.
In a statement, the auto companies, represented by the industry group Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation, wrote, "We are aligned with the Biden Administration's goals to achieve year-over-year improvements in fuel economy standards that provide meaningful climate and national energy security benefits."
They added, "In a gesture of good faith and to find a constructive path forward, the CSAR has decided to withdraw from this lawsuit in order to unify the auto industry behind a single national program with ambitious, achievable standards."
Now that GM, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler have dropped out of the Trump-era lawsuit, Biden administration officials are expected to try to make that California deal the basis of a new federal standard.
President Donald Trump had made the rollback of Obama-era fuel economy standards the centerpiece of his deregulatory agenda. The Obama-era standards, which were modeled on California's state-level standards, would have required auto companies to make and sell vehicles that reached an average fuel economy of about 54.5 mpg by 2025.
The Trump administration last year rolled back that standard to about 40 mpg by 2026. California, however, reached a separate deal with the five automakers in which they agreed to reach a standard of 51 mpg by 2026. The Trump administration, backed by GM and other automakers, blocked California's legal authority to set those standards.
White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy embraced automakers' legal retreat as a chance to "restart and build a sustainable future, grow domestic manufacturing and deliver clean cars for America."
Hours after being sworn in, Biden gave a July deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department to decide whether to suspend, revise or rescind the Trump administration regulation.
The auto emissions initiative is just one piece of Biden's broader climate agenda, as the president last week set in motion broad plans for pausing federal oil leasing and replacing the government's 645,000-vehicle fleet with zero-emission models.
In an emailed statement, the EPA pledged to "follow the science and the law" as it reviews agency actions under Trump "to ensure that they protect public health and the environment."
The Transportation Department declined to comment.
Automakers have gone back and forth on auto emission rules during changes in the White House. In 2012, they embraced Obama's rules in the wake of a federal bailout of Chrysler and General Motors Co. that resulted in critics labeling the venerable Detroit automaker as "Government Motors."
However, four years later, after Trump's election, automakers pressed the new administration to halt an Obama administration plan to finalize mileage rules for 2022-2025 model years ahead of schedule.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the leading automaker trade group, is urging Biden to adopt an emissions plan that falls "roughly midway between current standards and those of the former Obama administration." The group argues that is the best way to quickly benefit consumers, create jobs and protect the environment.
"Our desire is to work collaboratively on a new national framework that includes California," Alliance President John Bozzella said in an interview. "A midpoint allows us to get beyond current standards now, but also allows a shift to elements that would encourage electrification."
"The California deal is certainly weaker than the Obama standards and stronger than the Trump standards," said David Cooke, a senior vehicles analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. But "we're in a climate crisis. A middle-of-the-road approach isn't where we need to be."
If the California compromise were applied to the entire auto industry, it would yield about 25% fewer emission reductions from vehicles sold through 2025 than the Obama-era alternative, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Information for this article was contributed by Coral Davenport of The New York Times and by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Keith Laing of Bloomberg News (WPNS).
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