The National Academy of Sciences/Flickr

Mary Nichols chairs the California Air Resources Board.

ARB’s response to inquiry wasn’t what Orange County Republican had in mind

Orange County Republican Darrell Issa says he remains “deeply troubled” by what he calls a “lack of candor” & “internal inconsistencies” in the California Air Resource Board’s (ARB) response to his November 9th letter probing negotiations toward a new national fuel economy standard. (You can read my original post on Rep. Issa’s and Nichols first round of correspondence here.)

Issa now charges that the initial response from ARB Chair Mary Nichols “appear[s] to be a deliberate attempt to mislead Congress and obstruct an official investigation.”

Reached today for comment, ARB spokesperson Stanley Young expressed some apparent exasperation in an email, saying, “We will respond to the letter and look forward to once again explaining how California’s efforts are designed to save consumers money, increase the nation’s energy security and help fight climate change.”

Issa heads the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the volley of letters between it and ARB are part of his investigation into the process that led to the recently announced fuel economy and emission standards for light and heavy-duty vehicles. Issa contends that California overstepped its authority by setting fuel economy standards, a task left to the federal government. The ARB maintains it set only emission standards, with authority backed by federal waivers and several court decisions.

In parsing Nichols’ responses, Issa appears to charge that ARB asked auto manufacturers to adhere to two standards: corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards set by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (part of the federal Department of Transportation), and the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas emission regulations. Nichols’ stated in her November response that California “agreed to accept [automakers'] compliance” with EPA’s emission standards, as a way to “harmonize” the two.

Issa next questions ARB’s relationship with the NHTSA. Nichols told the Committee that it could not furnish any documents or communications “because [C]ARB was not involved in negotiating an agreement.” Issa counters by pointing out that ARB, according to its own records, “met with NHTSA on at least 116 separate occasions.” He calls the Air Board’s assertion that it did not “negotiate with NHTSA…demonstrably false.” Nichols characterized the relationship as a “collaboration.”

As for the Board’s assertion that its actions have been supported by the courts, Issa counters that Nichols has been cherry-picking her case law, writing that the “agency prefers to cling to the trial-level decisions of two Democrat-appointed district court judges.” He concludes his 11-page letter by once again asserting that the real effect of the ARB’s actions is to “de facto” set fuel economy regulations. “[C]ARB cannot escape this conclusion by calling its…regulations by another name.”

Issa has asked for a response by January 9.

Deja vu all over again. Photo: Craig Miller

Today the federal Environmental Protection Agency formally granted the waiver that California has sought since 2002, allowing the state to set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars.

But wait–didn’t this already happen for practical purposes, last month? That’s when the Obama administration announced its intent to essentially put California’s proposed standards in place nationwide.

Well, yes–and no. Bernadette Del Chiaro, who represents the group Environment California, says that having the waiver is more than a legal technicality. She says it means that the state can get started sooner, cleaning up tailpipe emissions. Del Chiaro explains that: “California’s standards kick in now, through 2016. The federal program that President Obama has extended throughout the entire country, starts in 2013 (also through 2016).”

That gives the states, in effect, a three-year jump-start. In 2013, everybody should be on the same page.

California’s chief air regulator,  Mary Nichols said, in a written statement:
“The waiver affirms California’s authority to set the standards for the cleanest cars in the nation and recognizes the ability of forward-thinking states to continue to adopt them. Now we can begin to work with the manufacturers to make a new generation of cars that deliver all the comfort and power we have come to expect but with improved efficiency and far fewer greenhouse gas emissions. ”

Thirteen other states had also pursued the waiver and can now proceed with their own programs.

While automakers have long argued that the tighter regs will make cars more expensive, Environment California calculates that they’ll “save consumers $36 billion at the pump by 2020.” That projection assumed that gasoline would would average about $2 per gallon over that period. Higher pump prices (which seem a lot more likely) would in turn, increase expected savings, as the underlying premise is that we’ll be driving cars that get better gas mileage.

But of course those cars will cost more than the clunkers we’re wheeling around in now. The state Air Resources Board estimates that the clean car regulations will tack an average of $1,000 onto the price of a new car by 2016. Obviously that would offset some of the pump savings.

Hazy day in L.A. Photo: Craig Miller

Yesterday afternoon, as I started working on my news spot about the new federal standard for tailpipe emissions, I dug up my notes from over a year ago, the last time I covered this story in any depth.

The contrast in tone between then and now amazed me. Back then, I was describing accusations of outright lying, government actions that California enviros called “completely illegal,” and California officials “sharpening their knives” as they marched into battle with EPA former Administrator Stephen Johnson. It was September, 2007, and Democratic lawmakers, led by Henry Waxman (D-CA), were accusing the White House of strong-arming the EPA into denying California its “waiver,” or permission to regulate auto tailpipe emissions. The mood between California environmentalists, many of the state’s elected officials, and the Bush administration couldn’t have been more hostile.

Today, it’s as if we’ve landed in an alternate reality.  Not only has California been given its more fuel-efficient cars, but those same laws are taking effect nationwide. The new rules actually exceed anything that California–traditionally the most ambitious state in the union, when it comes to greenhouse gas regulation–could have asked for.

Instead of knives being sharpened, California enviros are singing the praises of “an historic blueprint to carry out rigorous greenhouse gas emission standards,” to quote one email I received today. Another group told the New York Times: “This is the single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.” Compared to the fall of ’07–actually make that since ’05, when California first asked for the waiver and the EPA first started stalling–it’s like night and day.

Still, listening in to the White House background press briefing on Monday afternoon, you could hear the seeds of criticism taking root in a few reporters’ questions.

Sure, American automakers will be making more fuel-efficient cars, one reporter asked, but what is the White House doing to encourage consumers to buy them? (in addition to restricting tailpipe emissions, the new rules also substantially increase fuel efficiency standards for manufacturers’ fleets–SUVs and trucks will still be available; they’ll be more fuel efficient than before, but less efficient than smaller cars.) The question takes on new relevance as the federal government finds itself a major stockholder in auto companies.

President Obama says the new regs will have the equivalent impact of taking 177 million cars off the road.