Justice Department sues California over cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec
Acting Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought gives his insight on the Trump administration barring California from setting its own emissions standards.
The Department of Justice is suing California over the state's cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec.
The civil lawsuit announced Wednesday is another front in the Trump administration's fight with California.
The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation said in September they were withdrawing the state's waiver to set fuel economy standards. California countered by suing the DOT with 22 other states.
Traffic backs up at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza along Interstate 80 on July 25, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
"The state of California has veered outside of its proper constitutional lane to enter into an international emissions agreement," Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement. "The power to enter into such agreements is reserved to the federal government, which must be able to speak with one voice in the area of U.S. foreign policy."
"California's unlawful cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec undermines the President’s ability to negotiate competitive agreements with other nations, as the President sees fit," Bossert said.
California struck the agreement with Quebec in 2013.