But the Obama administration finalized the second phase, dictating the standards through 2025, in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s announcement Wednesday is one of the first concrete steps by his administration to dismantle Obama’s policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Yet experts have warned that the repeal of the tailpipe emissions standards would make difficult for the U.S. to meet the commitments it made under the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. The state has adopted an ambitious program to fight climate change, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030. Yet Southern California and other regions still suffer from high levels of pollution and there is a need to continue to cut tailpipe emissions even further.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 15, 2017 22:18 UTC