tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/xavier-becerra-39802/articlesXavier Becerra – The Conversation2018-04-06T10:46:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/943792018-04-06T10:46:21Z2018-04-06T10:46:21ZWhy California gets to write its own auto emissions standards: 5 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213470/original/file-20180405-189830-1st08cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rush hour on the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, September 9, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Los-Angeles-Mayor/178af7a4248c43d78e61ee64950ea57f/324/0">AP Photo/Richard Vogel</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: On April 2, 2018, the Trump administration froze the fuel efficiency standards for cars and light-duty trucks, following the EPA’s finding earlier this year that tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor vehicles built between 2022 and 2025 <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">were set “too high.”</a>. The EPA also revoked California’s historic ability to adopt standards that are more ambitious than the federal government’s. UCLA legal scholars Nicholas Bryner and Meredith Hankins explain why California has this authority – and what may happen if the EPA tries to curb it.</em></p>
<h2>1. Where does California get this special authority?</h2>
<p>The Clean Air Act empowers the EPA to regulate air pollution from motor vehicles. To promote uniformity, the law generally bars states from regulating car emissions. </p>
<p>But when the Clean Air Act was passed, California was already developing innovative laws and standards to address its unique air pollution problems. So Congress carved out an exemption. As long as California’s standards protect public health and welfare at least as strictly as federal law, and are necessary “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions,” the law <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/7543">requires</a> the EPA to grant California a waiver so it can continue to apply its own regulations. California has received <a href="https://www.epa.gov/state-and-local-transportation/vehicle-emissions-california-waivers-and-authorizations#notices">numerous waivers</a> as it has worked to reduce vehicle emissions by enacting ever more stringent standards since the 1960s.</p>
<p>Other states can’t set their own standards, but they can opt to follow California’s motor vehicle emission regulations. Currently, <a href="https://database.aceee.org/state/tailpipe-emission-standards">12 states and the District of Columbia</a> have adopted California’s standards.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Gov. Ronald Reagan signs legislation establishing the California Air Resources Board to address the state’s air pollution, August 30, 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/history">CA ARB</a></span>
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<h2>2. What are the “compelling and extraordinary conditions” that California’s regulations are designed to address?</h2>
<p>In the 1950s scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00966665.1953.10467586">recognized</a> that the unique combination of enclosed topography, a rapidly growing population and a warm climate in the Los Angeles air basin was a recipe for dangerous smog. Dutch chemist <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/hsawards/a_lesson_from_the_smog_capital_of_world.pdf">Arie Jan Haagen-Smit</a> discovered in 1952 that worsening Los Angeles smog episodes were caused by photochemical reactions between California’s sunshine and nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons in motor vehicle exhaust. </p>
<p>California’s Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board issued <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/html/brochure/history.htm">regulations</a> mandating use of the nation’s first vehicle emissions control technology in 1961, and developed the nation’s first vehicle emissions standards in 1966. Two years later the EPA adopted standards identical to California’s for model year 1968 cars. UCLA Law scholar Ann Carlson calls this pattern, in which California innovates and federal regulators piggyback on the state’s demonstrated success, “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1115556">iterative federalism</a>.” This process has continued for decades. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">California’s severe air pollution problems have made it a pioneer in air quality research.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>3. California has <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-blazing-a-low-carbon-path-pay-off-for-california-72168">set ambitious goals</a> for slowing climate change. Is that part of this dispute with the EPA?</h2>
<p>Yes. Transportation is now the <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/digest/transportation-replaces-power-in-u-s-as-top-source-of-co2-emissions">largest source</a> of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. The tailpipe standards that the Obama EPA put in place were designed to limit GHG emissions from cars by improving average fuel efficiency. </p>
<p>These standards were developed jointly by the EPA, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and California, which have overlapping legal authority to regulate cars. EPA and California have the responsibility to control motor vehicle emissions of air pollutants, including GHGs. DOT is in charge of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/32902">regulating fuel economy</a>.</p>
<p>Congress began regulating fuel economy in response to the oil crisis in the 1970s. DOT sets the Corporate Average Fuel Economy <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/corporate-average-fuel-economy">(CAFE) standard</a> that each auto manufacturer must meet. Under this program, average fuel economy in the United States improved in the late 1970s but <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100TGLC.pdf">stagnated</a> from the 1980s to the early 2000s as customers shifted to purchasing larger vehicles, including SUVs, minivans and trucks.</p>
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<p>In 2007 Congress responded with a new law that required DOT to set a standard of at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, and the “maximum feasible average fuel economy” after that. That same year, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-1120.ZS.html">ruled</a> that the Clean Air Act authorized the EPA to regulate GHG emissions from cars.</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s tailpipe standard brought these overlapping mandates together. EPA’s regulation sets how much carbon dioxide can be emitted per mile, which matches with DOT’s increased standard for average fuel economy. It also includes a “midterm review” to assess progress. Administrator Scott Pruitt’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-04/documents/mte-final-determination-notice-2018-04-02.pdf">new EPA review</a>, released on April 2, overturned the Obama administration’s midterm review and concluded that the 2022 to 2025 standard was not feasible.</p>
<p>The EPA now <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">argues</a> that earlier assumptions behind the rule were “optimistic” and can’t be met. However, its review almost entirely ignored the purpose of the standards and the costs of continuing to emit GHGs at high levels. Although the document is 38 pages long, the word “climate” never appears, and “carbon” appears only once.</p>
<p>The EPA’s decision does not yet have any legal impact. It leaves the current standards in place until the EPA and DOT decide on a less-stringent replacement. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from transportation exceeded those from electric power generation in 2016 for the first time since the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=29612">USEIA</a></span>
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<h2>4. Can the Trump administration take away California’s authority to set stricter targets?</h2>
<p>The EPA has never attempted to revoke an existing waiver. In 2007, under George W. Bush, the agency <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/washington/20epa-web.html">denied</a> California’s request for a waiver to regulate motor vehicle GHG emissions. California sued, but the EPA reversed course under President Obama and granted the state a waiver before the case was resolved. </p>
<p>California’s <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-09/pdf/2013-00181.pdf">current waiver</a> was approved in 2013 as a part of a “<a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/28/obama-administration-finalizes-historic-545-mpg-fuel-efficiency-standard">grand bargain</a>” between California, federal agencies and automakers. It covers the state’s Advanced Clean Cars program and includes standards to reduce conventional air pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, as well as the GHG standards jointly developed with the EPA and DOT.</p>
<p>The Trump administration is threatening to revoke this waiver when it decouples the national GHG vehicle standards from California’s standards. EPA Administrator Pruitt has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">said</a> that the agency is re-examining the waiver, and that “cooperative federalism doesn’t mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country.” In our view, this statement mischaracterizes how the Clean Air Act works. Other states have voluntarily chosen to follow California’s rules because they see benefits in reducing air pollution. </p>
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<h2>5. How would California respond if the EPA revokes its waiver?</h2>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/JerryBrownGov/status/980894214903836672">Gov. Jerry Brown</a>, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-epa%E2%80%99s-assault-federal-greenhouse-gas-emission-standards">Attorney General Xavier Becerra</a> and <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-chair-issues-response-epa-press-release-weakening-vehicle-standards">California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols</a> have all made clear that the state will push back. It’s almost certain that any attempt to revoke or weaken California’s waiver will immediately be challenged in court – and that this would be a <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2018/03/16/will-pruitt-join-sessions-in-expanding-the-attack-on-california/">major legal battle</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Air pollution could be the next battleground between California and the Trump administration, which is reviewing the Golden State’s special legal authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.Nicholas Bryner, Assistant Professor of Law, Louisiana State University Meredith Hankins, Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932462018-03-14T10:53:44Z2018-03-14T10:53:44ZOnce at the vanguard of national policy, California plays defense under Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210160/original/file-20180313-30958-nr80yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A San Diego rally against a scheduled visit by President Donald Trump.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On March 13, President Donald Trump inspected towering border wall prototypes at the U.S.-Mexico border during the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-lb-789-42070-la-me-ln-president-trump-california-20180312-htmlstory.html">two-day trip</a> to California – his first to the Golden State since the November 2016 election.</p>
<p>Surely he did not expect a warm welcome. Not only did Trump lose the state by more than <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election_in_California,_2016">4 million votes</a>, but his trip <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/06/trump-california-sanctuary-laws-443835">comes hard on the heels</a> of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department against the state of California in federal court to strike down legislative initiatives to protect immigrants and block their enforcement.</p>
<p>It was Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, who offered a very public rebuttal to Washington’s move. Unfurling the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-s-justice-department-sues-california-over-immigration-enforcement-n854331">he asserted that</a> the states, not federal officials, are the final authority on public safety.</p>
<p>“We believe we are in full compliance with the federal constitution and federal law,” Becerra said.</p>
<p>This is the latest evidence that Becerra is the Golden State’s face of resistance to the Trump administration’s policies – especially its attempts <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-20180122-story.html">to roll back</a> progressive immigration and environmental policies that are central to California’s identity.</p>
<p>Becerra is mounting a rearguard action because he has little choice. Even so, his defensive posture runs counter to the no-holds-barred approach that defined California’s post-World War II drive for economic growth and social justice.</p>
<h2>Challenging Trump</h2>
<p>Becerra is the hardworking <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/about">son of immigrants</a> and the first in his family to go to college. He finished law school in 1984, was elected to the state assembly, and then served in the state’s Department of Justice before winning an impressive 12 terms to the U.S. House of Representatives.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">California’s first Latino attorney general, Xavier Becerra, has taken a defiant – and, by necessity, a defensive – tone vis a vis Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</span></span>
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<p>His personal story is etched into his staunch advocacy for the poor and marginalized – a stark contrast to the president’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/03/trumps-false-claim-he-built-his-empire-with-a-small-loan-from-his-father/">silver-spoon background</a>. It is no wonder Gov. Jerry Brown tapped Becerra to replace newly elected Sen. Kamala Harris as attorney general in January 2017. Becerra became the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-xavier-becerra-takes-oath-of-office-is-1485281551-htmlstory.html">first Latino</a> to hold this office in California.</p>
<p>Becerra’s tough-minded approach to his latest job has made him a frequent and forceful critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. He has also championed a kind of states-rights environmentalism by attacking the administration’s attempts to <a href="https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/california-sues-feds-failure-enforce-clean-air-act/">gut clean air</a> <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-files-lawsuit-protect-clean-water-rule">and water regulations</a>, destroy California’s <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-trump-administration-beginning-process">green energy economy</a>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-monuments-20170608-story.html">and undercut protections</a> for national forests, parks, grasslands and refuges. </p>
<p>Becerra’s relentlessness earned him <a href="https://grist.org/article/xavier-becerra-california-donald-trump-nemesis/">praise from the environmental magazine Grist</a> as “The Planet’s Lawyer.” </p>
<h2>California’s cultural clout</h2>
<p>Becerra’s defensive strategy is born from what <a href="https://www.amazon.com/California-History-Modern-Library-Chronicles/dp/081297753X">historian Kevin Starr</a> argued in his magisterial study of California is the state’s particular genius: It is the “best place in the nation to seek and attain a better life.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Sequoia National Monument is one of the national monuments the Trump administration has put under review, which the state is fighting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33671002@N00/4242556683/in/photolist-8zp1C-8zp6T-kCzNG-kCzUp-8zu7E-kCBsW-4PoE6-a8Bwkp-kCAH6-8zoW3-8zoPh-8zoUM-8zpb4-8zoRK-8zp8Z-8zoXk-xDNTRb-xWq8FB-eNccXN-rGmUoE-8zp4v-8zu3j-8zoLn-8zu1L-qUFJSx-7sUcuD-7sUdi2-8zoQj-8zpdZ-8zoMw-8zp36-7sUe4r-7sYdYS-tXhkRS-rGsRqM-stfEzU-MMwHU3-Mvwzv3-MUyDLS-MvwFcU-MQb96n-uLJGLP-uJ9CTU-qCq1Dr-kCBg5-kCzG2-wZpiBu-xX5o4K-xDUVPt-722ChY">David Prasad/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Fueled by a generous stream of tax dollars, in the 1960s and 1970s the state’s educational systems <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/21560290">became the envy</a> of the world. Its high-speed highways, highly engineered water systems, agricultural productivity, artistic energy and technological creativity inspired visitors from near and far. </p>
<p>Today, its many benefits are broadly accessible: Beaches are public, parks and open spaces plentiful. Higher education is relatively cheap. Here, democracy has flourished, or at least it could do so. Where it has not, people fought to ensure that it would.</p>
<p>Since the mid-20th century, for example, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farm-mechanization/">thousands of migrant</a> farm workers in the Central, Salinas and Imperial valleys have picked cotton, harvested fruits, nuts and produce. They have endured oppressive conditions for decades, but when they formed the United Farm Workers of America in the early 1960s and launched the first nationwide grape boycott, they gained an important measure of control over their lives. </p>
<p>So have Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, women and people in the LGBTQ community. Although their struggle to secure increased rights and opportunities did not always originate in California, and although there were setbacks <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_187,_Illegal_Aliens_Ineligible_for_Public_Benefits_(1994)">along the way</a>, their arguments gained greater political visibility, social currency, and cultural clout when manifest on the coast. The state, as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Dreams-California-Abundance-1950-1963/dp/0199832498/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Kevin Starr once asserted</a>, nurtured everyone’s golden dreams.</p>
<h2>Setting pace on public health</h2>
<p>Even those who dreamed of blue skies. It has also taken decades to scrub the state’s polluted air, as grassroots activists, educators, scientists and some public officials fought long and hard against entrenched opposition in the state capital, among Detroit automakers and within the federal government. But eventually they <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Smogtown-Lung-Burning-History-Pollution-Angeles/dp/1585678600">succeeded in securing</a> what now are the nation’s toughest environmental controls.</p>
<p>It is not by happenstance that the air-monitoring EPA owes its existence to a Californian – <a href="https://www.epa.gov/history">President Richard Nixon</a> signed it into law December 1970. Or that the Clean Air Acts grants California the right to <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-epa-statement-california-emission-standards">institute stricter smog controls</a> than the federal government requires of the rest of the nation.</p>
<p>For all its progress in ameliorating pressing racial, political, social and environmental problems, California today finds itself in a conundrum. To continue to advance what Becerra’s <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-epa-statement-california-emission-standards">characterizes</a> as the state’s “forward-leaning” mission, it must vigorously defend its past achievements. But the vigor of that defense may complicate its ability to plan for and invest in a future that expands on California’s democratic promise.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/once-at-the-vanguard-of-national-policy-california-plays-defense-under-trump-78301">originally published</a> on June 17, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Char Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Defiant against Trump’s policies on immigration and environment, California finds itself defending its way of life – the California Dream itself.Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/783012017-06-17T12:54:43Z2017-06-17T12:54:43ZOnce at the vanguard of national policy, California plays defense under Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174073/original/file-20170615-24991-t2pgps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A May Day protest in San Francisco. The state is at odds with the Trump administration on a number of policies, notably immigration and environment. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Xavier Becerra, California’s combative attorney general, has become the Golden State’s face of resistance to the Trump administration’s domestic initiatives, the blunt voice rejecting the president’s attempts to roll back the progressive immigration and environmental policies so central to California’s sense of itself. </p>
<p>At a June 16 press conference, for example, Becerra pushed back against stricter immigration enforcement, <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/06/15/72968/ca-lawmakers-approve-bill-to-bar-local-governments/">saying</a> his office would review conditions at immigrant detention facilities in conjunction with a legislative measure that prohibits local governments from renting out jail beds to U.S. Immigration and Customs. One week earlier, Becerra <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-monuments-20170608-story.html">sent</a> Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke a withering, 11-page letter that flat-out rejected the president’s executive order aimed at delisting or shrinking national monuments his predecessors had established in California. </p>
<p>Yet as eloquent and forceful as the attorney general may be in his defiance, there are limits to the state’s protective stance. Becerra is mounting what amounts to a rearguard action because he has little choice in this age of Trump the Tumultuous. </p>
<p>Viewed from my perspective as an <a href="https://www.pomona.edu/news/2016/09/27-prof-char-miller-looks-california%E2%80%99s-not-so-golden-history-new-book">environmental historian</a>, this defensive rhetoric runs counter to the no-holds-barred approach that defined California’s post-World War II drive for economic growth and social justice. </p>
<p>It is as if, for the time being, the California Dream so critical to Becerra’s personal success – and many others’ – has been put on hold. </p>
<h2>Challenging Trump</h2>
<p>The hardworking son of immigrants and the first in his family to go to college, Becerra finished law school in 1984, was elected to the state assembly, and then served in the state’s Department of Justice before winning an impressive 12 terms to the U.S. House of Representatives. </p>
<p>At each stop along the way, he has been a staunch advocate for the poor and marginalized, those who need a hand up and out. In January 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown (who is playing a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-jerry-brown-california-climate.html">similar role as Becerra on an international stage</a>) tapped the politically savvy Becerra to replace newly elected Senator Kamala Harris as AG to become the first Latino to hold this high office in California. </p>
<p>Becerra’s tough-minded approach to his latest job has made him ubiquitous this commencement season. Between May 15 and 23 alone, he addressed the political science graduates at the University of California, Berkeley, those receiving their law degrees at USC and the University of San Francisco, and bachelor’s-earning undergrads at Occidental College. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California’s first Latino attorney general, Xavier Becerra has taken a defiant – and, by necessity, a defensive – tone vis a vis Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even as he cheered these graduates’ academic successes, he reminded them of the rough-and-tumble political environment they were entering. Becerra spoke of how he and other state AGs were challenging the legality of Trump’s Muslim travel ban. He <a href="https://www.usfca.edu/law/news/commencement-2017">affirmed</a> his deeply felt support for the undocumented and asserted that cities could proclaim themselves sanctuaries, free from executive branch interference. </p>
<p>In resisting the Trump administration’s <a href="http://ktla.com/2017/05/05/6-california-national-monuments-including-san-gabriel-mountains-among-27-named-for-review-by-trump-administration/">review of national monuments</a>, Becerra wrote what amounts to a legal brief that cited judicial rulings and legislative records and made a strong case for a kind of states-rights environmentalism. Arguing separately against a plan to open up offshore drilling, he <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-atty-gen-becerra-vows-to-1493398354-htmlstory.html">said</a>: “Instead of taking us backwards, the federal government should work with us to advance the clean energy economy that’s creating jobs, providing energy and preserving California’s natural beauty.”</p>
<h2>California’s cultural clout</h2>
<p>The late, great Kevin Starr argued in his magisterial, multi-volume <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-kevin-starr-obit-20170115-story.html">study of California</a> that the state’s particular genius is in offering “the highest possible life for the middle classes.” It proved time and again to be “the best place in the nation to seek and attain a better life.” </p>
<p>Fueled by a generous stream of tax dollars, the state’s educational systems, from K-12 through college and university, were the envy of the world. So, too, were its high-speed highways and highly engineered water systems, as well as its agricultural productivity, artistic energy and technological creativity. California was a state on the move.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sequoia National Monument is one of the national monuments the Trump administration has put under review, which the state is fighting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33671002@N00/4242556683/in/photolist-8zp1C-8zp6T-kCzNG-kCzUp-8zu7E-kCBsW-4PoE6-a8Bwkp-kCAH6-8zoW3-8zoPh-8zoUM-8zpb4-8zoRK-8zp8Z-8zoXk-xDNTRb-xWq8FB-eNccXN-rGmUoE-8zp4v-8zu3j-8zoLn-8zu1L-qUFJSx-7sUcuD-7sUdi2-8zoQj-8zpdZ-8zoMw-8zp36-7sUe4r-7sYdYS-tXhkRS-rGsRqM-stfEzU-MMwHU3-Mvwzv3-MUyDLS-MvwFcU-MQb96n-uLJGLP-uJ9CTU-qCq1Dr-kCBg5-kCzG2-wZpiBu-xX5o4K-xDUVPt-722ChY">David Prasad/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its benefits were also broadly accessible: Beaches were public, parks and open spaces plentiful, higher education was cheap. Here, democracy flourished, or at least it could do so. Where it did not, people battled to ensure that it would. </p>
<p>Those toiling in the fields of the Central and Imperial valleys, for example, endured oppressive conditions, but gained an important measure of control over their lives and livelihoods through the formation of the United Farm Workers of America. The struggles that African-Americans and Asian-Americans, Latinos, women and LGBT activists have waged for increased rights, solidarity and opportunities did not always originate in California, but they gained political visibility and cultural clout when manifest on the coast. If you wanted to remake yourself, go West. </p>
<h2>Setting pace on public health</h2>
<p>But all that prosperity took its toll. Clearing the air of the state’s legendary pollution – “don’t breathe too deeply when you arrive in California” used to be the warning – has taken decades. Grassroots activists, dedicated educators and scientists, and some principled public officials fought against entrenched opposition in Sacramento, Detroit and Washington, D.C. to secure what now are the nation’s toughest environmental controls. More needs to be done, but these regulations have had a profound impact. </p>
<p>It is not by happenstance that the EPA owes its existence to a Californian (President Richard Nixon signed it into law December 1970). Or that the Clean Air Acts grant the state the right to institute stricter measures than the federal government (which is why the current administration <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-epa-statement-california-emission-standards">tried</a> to deny California’s right to set higher standards). </p>
<p>The ground-level consequences of such innovations as catalytic converters is evident in enhanced public health. When I was a student at Pitzer College in Claremont in the 1970s, I almost never glimpsed the smog-enshrouded Mt. Baldy (elevation 10,050 feet), a few miles away. Today, its towering presence is visible 24/7.</p>
<p>There was no way to predict this remarkable turnaround when my classmates and I gathered outdoors for our graduation in 1975. And no way would bluer skies have become commonplace had the state heeded the advice our commencement speaker imparted to those entering a depressed job market in a society constrained by the budget-busting Vietnam War and post-Watergate cynicism. Hunker down, he said, hunker down.</p>
<p>That 1975 recommendation from a California <a href="http://pitweb.pitzer.edu/archives/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2014/02/Commencement-dates.pdf">assemblyman</a> to retreat from the world was as wrong then as it is now in our similarly fraught environment. Rather than simply throw up a wall to fend off the barbarians at the gates, however understandable, California needs to reassert the bold, expansive, and democratic vision that has made it California. A prospect that requires a shared and tenacious commitment to the commonweal. </p>
<p>And a sense of agency. “You don’t have to do it by yourself,” Xavier Becerra <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-AG-Becerra-urges-grads-to-fight-for-11145514.php">told</a> Berkeley seniors. “You don’t have to have done it before. But when you get out there with the guts and the grit and the ganas [desire], you can make a difference.” </p>
<p>That’s how dreams become real.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Char Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Defiant against Trump’s policies on immigration and environment, California finds itself defending its way of life – the California Dream itself.Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.