US: Kamala Harris asks watchdog to review DOJ automakers probe

US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday, September 13, asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into the Trump administration’s decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate, reported the Wall Street Journal. 

She asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate the Antitrust Division’s decision to probe Ford, Honda, BMW, and Volkswagen AG. In July the carmakers said they had reached a deal with California to adopt tougher emissions standards than the Trump administration’s 2018 proposal.

“The Trump administration has launched a multi-pronged assault on California’s framework with the four automakers,” said Harris, adding it “raises questions about whether the machinery of the Justice Department is being used for partisan political purposes, or at the behest of special interest groups that oppose even modest efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

When Trump moved to roll back the Obama-era emissions standards, California and other states vowed to enforce the stricter regulations. The rules the automakers agreed to with California were a compromise: looser than the Obama rules but stricter than Trump’s proposed freeze.

Full Content: Wall Street Journal

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