LOS ANGELES — A top EPA official hinted Monday that the agency plans to decide on California’s pending clean air waivers prior to an administration change if former President Donald Trump reclaims the White House.
Joe Goffman, EPA’s lead air quality official, said during an event Monday in Los Angeles County that federal regulators are working closely with the California Air Resources Board to ensure the waivers — which give California the unique authority to set stronger-than-federal regulations — are on strong legal footing.
“We’re taking extra special care to make sure that when we announce our decisions about those waivers, those decisions are based on a really solid technical and legal foundation,” he said.
Goffman’s statement is the clearest indication so far that EPA plans to finalize at least some of California’s eight pending requests to go further than the federal government in setting Clean Air Act standards. He didn’t specify which waivers he was referencing during an interview, but the state is waiting on several high-profile rules that mandate faster transitions to zero-emission light-duty vehicles and fleets.
