California officials to boycott Los Angeles Auto Show over automakers’ support for Trump in emissions lawsuit

Members of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced Tuesday they are boycotting the Los Angeles Auto Show over several automakers’ support for the Trump administration in a lawsuit with California over fuel economy standards. 

“For the first time in more than 50 years the California Air Resources Board will not be attending the LA Auto Show. Each year, top CARB officials have taken a company-by-company tour led by the Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to see new vehicles and meet with company executives. This year CARB will not take that annual tour,” CARB said in a statement. 

“The decision not to attend the LA Auto Show is a direct response to the action taken last month by 15 automakers, including GM and Toyota, and the National Automobile Dealers Association, to side with the Trump administration in its effort to eviscerate California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own vehicle emissions standards.”

CARB name-checked several high-profile automakers, including Toyota, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler, Hyundai, Isuzu, KIA, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and more.

The boycott is in response to the car manufacturers’ decision last month to support the Trump administration in a lawsuit brought by California and 22 other states in September that challenges the federal government’s authority to revoke a pollution waiver that allowed the state to set more stringent tailpipe emissions standards than those established federally. 

The Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation, a group that backed several leading car manufacturers, argued that while it supported California and the other states in their desire for emissions standards to increase “year over year,” it also supported the Trump administration in its desire to keep one national emissions standard, which it argued California was moving to end. 

The lawsuit was sparked in September when the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was revoking California’s waiver entirely.

CARB Chair Mary Nichols is set to address reporters Wednesday to explain the group’s decision to boycott the auto show.