Climate Roundup: Feds Back Off from Antitrust Probe of Carmakers

The U.S Department of Justice halted its antitrust attack against the quartet of automakers that reached an agreement with California air regulators on greenhouse gas emission limits in new vehicle models.

“With the shadow of this probe lifted, I look forward to more automakers joining this agreement and continuing the signal to the Administration that we are on the right side of history and on the right side of the fight to combat climate change,” Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) said Feb. 10.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the months-old federal effort “trumped up charges” to intimidate other car manufacturers from signing onto California's stronger emissions standards.

Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen reached an agreement with the California Air Resources Board on emission reductions in late July of last year. It was in response to the Trump Administration's announcement it would yank the state’s authority under the Clean Air Act to set emission standards tighter than the federal ones. That long-standing state waiver was nullified in September.

Mary Nichols, ARB chair, said at that time that DOJ’s antitrust action was nothing short of persecution of the four vehicle makers.

The Air Board-automaker deal sets annual reductions of vehicle greenhouse gas emissions at 3.7% for models beginning in 2022 through 2026. These reductions are "measured very precisely to grams of emissions per mile," according to the David Clegern, Air Board spokesperson. The agreement also promotes growth in the electric vehicles market.

California’s vehicle greenhouse gas emission reduction standards and programs are critical to the state's climate protection work because the transportation sector produces half of the state’s emissions.

* * * * *

A University of California at Berkeley environmental planning professor shocked a state legislative committee Feb. 7 by explaining that the rising oceans will flood land even if levies and seawalls are raised. Higher seawater levels will do this, she said, by creating hydrologic pressure that forces shallow groundwater to the surface.

Kristina Hill, associate professor of landscape architecture, environmental planning and urban design, explained that by the turn of the century, or sooner, increased pressure from rising sea levels will force so much groundwater to the surface that low-lying areas, such as Marin City, will be flooded.

Hill’s research suggests the unincorporated community may be flooded on an ongoing basis by groundwater that has no place to go but up onto the street. This phenomenon already is in play in Miami.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Marin City won’t be alone, she said. One meter of sea level rise, according to Hill, could flood as much as 40 square miles of land around the bay with freshwater from shallow water tables. The rising groundwater likely will bring contaminants up with it to the surface.

She further cautioned that if local governments attempt to address the problem by pumping groundwater they will risk severe subsidence, which has happened as a result of pumping in New Orleans and Houston.

Hill shared her research last week at the second meeting of Select Committee on Sea Level Rise & the California Economy, chaired by Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Encinitas). The panel’s first meeting focused on Southern California.

While Hill did not specifically address how energy facilities could be affected by the flooding, previous state projections show substantial amounts of energy infrastructure—including electrical substations and marine fuel terminals—eventually will be in harm’s way from sea level rise.

No one knows yet where the massive sums of money needed for adaptation will come from. However, in the Bay Area alone, more than $100 billion of economics assets are at risk, said Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin (D-San Mateo).

--The Editors

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Climate Roundup: Feds Back Off from Antitrust Probe of Carmakers

William J. Kelly

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