Los Angeles, (EFE) .- California prosecutor, Rob Bonta, announced Thursday that he filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s administration, supported by 10 other states, after the Republican’s decision, signed hours before, to reverse the prohibition of gasoline vehicles by 2035 in that state, an effort that had been led by the Democratic authorities.
“We are not going to stay with crossed arms and allow that to happen. That is why we announce our twenty -sixth demand against the president. Our demand seeks to defend California’s ability to apply his own environmental laws,” said Bonta at a virtual press conference.
The lawsuit, presented together with the general prosecutors of 10 other states -colored, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington -criticizes the illegal use of the law by the federal government to invalidate state efforts on environmental matters.
The plaintiffs challenge “the unprecedented and illegal use of the Congress Review Law (CRA, in English) to invalidate the Clean Vehicle Program of California,” as read in a statement issued by the Office of the Californian Attorney General.
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Hours before, President Trump had promulgated the law that reverts the prohibition to gasoline vehicles by 2035 in California, an effort that the Democratic authorities of that state had led to accelerate the transition to electric cars.
The president justified his decision, which had been previously supported by Congress -of Republican majority -, claiming that people should have the option “to buy an electric car, a gasoline car or a hybrid.”
He also validated the end of other state policies aimed at reducing the emissions of the exhaust pipes of some cars and nitrogen oxide pollution, one of the gases that most contribute to air pollution.
The demand, however, argues that these actions are illegal, since the exemptions of the Clean Air Law in California – which encouraged the acceleration of zero emissions vehicles – had never been subject to CRA before.
According to the plaintiffs, the estimated cost of the presidential order would amount to 45,000 million dollars in medical care expenses.
In addition, they denounce that Trump’s decision is part of a partisan policy focused on passing over the California authorities, instead of making the fairer decisions for the State.
“Trump’s frontal attack against California continues, and this time is destroying our clean air and the global competitiveness of the United States in the process,” the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom said in the statement.
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The Newsom authority in California was recently questioned by the Federal Government, on the occasion of the protests that Los Angeles ravage last Friday. Trump deployed the National Guard to contain the demonstrations without the consent of the governor, who has become one of the main opposition figures to the president.
In California there are several of the cities with the worst air quality in the United States, according to the American Lung Association.
The State has traditionally a pioneer in pollution standards to improve air quality and protect people’s health, and for the electric vehicles industry.
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