Bitter talks over auto emissions turn personal as California and EPA chiefs feud

California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols, center, with Cal EPA Secretary Matthew Rodriguez and California Atty. White House officials in February terminated talks with the California Air Resources Board over a potential compromise on the plan, which also would revoke the state’s authority to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions. Nichols, a California anti-pollution campaigner for almost 50 years, pointed fingers back at Washington, telling lawmakers in her prepared testimony that “the Trump administration has been unwilling to find a way that works” and “unilaterally decided to cut off conversations.” Wheeler and Nichols are formidable foes. Nichols was unable or unwilling to be a good-faith negotiator,” Wheeler said, insisting that California’s first counterproposal came more than 10 weeks after the Trump administration proposed changing the vehicle standards — and was just a reiteration of the existing Obama-era requirements, with only a modest change to give automakers an extra year of compliance time. “Instead, when confronted with experts and science, the Trump administration recoils and retreats instead of defending their so-called SAFE vehicles rule, a disaster for our country.” Nichols initially had raised the possibility of peace in her written testimony filed with the House of Representatives, appealing for the administration “to abandon this flawed proposal and come to the table with California, just as automakers representing the majority of the market asked the president.”