A12 The Nation The Boston Globe THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

By Coral Davenport

NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — President

Trump on Wednesday posted

on Twitter an aggressive de-

fense of his unprecedented

move to abolish California’s le-

gal authority to set its own stan-

dards on climate-warming au-

tomobile emissions.

Trump was in Los Angeles

for a fund-raiser when he boast-

ed about the move, which Cali-

fornia officials and environ-

mental advocates have assailed

as an illegal attack on states’

rights and on a major policy de-

signed to fight climate change.

“The Trump administration

is revoking California’s Federal

Waiver on emissions in order to

produce far less expensive cars

for the consumer, while at the

same time making the cars sub-

stantially SAFER,” Trump

wrote. He said the change

would lead to increased auto

production and claimed newer

cars would be “extremely envi-

ronmentally friendly.”

California officials said they

would sue to block the move.

“Our message to those who

claim to support states’ rights

is, ‘Don’t trample on ours,’ ”

said Xavier Becerra, attorney

general of California. “We can-

not afford to backslide in our

battle against climate change.”

The Trump administration

is expected Thursday morning

to formally revoke California’s

authority to set auto emissions

rules that are stricter than fed-

eral standards, taking a major

step forward in the administra-

tion’s wide-ranging attack on ef-

forts to fight climate change.

Andrew Wheeler, head of

the Environmental Protection

Agency, and Elaine Chao, trans-

portation secretary, are sched-

uled to announce the formal ab-

olition of the waiver.

That would have national

significance. Tailpipe pollution

is the United States’ largest

source of planet-warming

greenhouse gas pollution, and

California, with 35 million vehi-

cles, is the nation’s largest auto

market. California has histori-

cally set stronger pollution

standards than the federal gov-

ernment, and many of those

standards have influenced na-

tional and international policy.

Thirteen other states follow

California’s tighter tailpipe

greenhouse gas standards, to-

gether representing roughly a

third of the national auto mar-

ket.

The president’s three Twitter

posts sought to defend the revo-

cation by citing details of the

plan. As the political battle over

climate emissions has intensi-

fied, Trump’s interest in the pol-

icy details has deepened, said a

person familiar with the matter.

“If you look at the whole

tweet thread, this is remarkably

specific,” said Barry Rabe, a

professor of public policy at the

University of Michigan. “It al-

most moves into policy-wonk

territory. If he’s doing this him-

self, he’s on his policy game.”

Still, Rabe and other experts

said Trump’s assertions, while

using the language of emissions

policy, veered from the facts on

several significant points.

Several analysts, for in-

stance, disputed Trump’s asser-

tion that weakening emissions

standards would improve high-

way safety.

“The president’s claim that

high fuel economy negatively

affects safety is baseless,” said

Shannon Baker-Branstetter, co-

author of an August Consumer

Reports analysis concluding

that the Trump administra-

tion’s rollback of fuel economy

standards would have no statis-

tically significant effect on high-

way safety.

Legal experts said that if

Trump’s move was ultimately

upheld by the Supreme Court,

it could permanently block

states from regulating green-

house-gas pollution from vehi-

cles — a major setback for ef-

forts to control climate change.

The administration’s plans

have been further complicated

because major automakers

have told the White House that

they do not want such an ag-

gressive rollback. In July, four

automakers formalized their

opposition to Trump’s plans by

signing a deal with California to

comply with tighter emissions

standards if the broader roll-

back goes through.

By Greg Bensinger

THE WASHINGTON POST

SAN FRANCISCO — Barack

Obama appeared to lob a thin-

lyveiledjabathisreplacement

in the White House at a tech-

nology event here Wednesday,

marking a rare public rebuke

from the former president.

Speaking at a private event

hosted by data company

Splunk, Obama explained how

hehadapproachedthejob,in-

cluding some 3,000 political

appointments, before offering

this advice: ‘‘The other thing

that is helpful is not watching

TV or reading social media.’’

‘‘Those are two things I

would advise, if you’re our

president,nottodo,’’hesaid.

‘‘It creates a lot of noise and

clouds your judgment.’’

But that comment, along

with another highlighting that

the Obama administration

avoided any indictments,

seemed tailored to the largely

liberal San Francisco audi-

ence.

‘‘I’m proud of the fact we

didn’t have indictments,’’ dur-

ing his two terms in office, he

said. ‘‘I’ve said that before, but

that is pretty rare in modern

day.’’

Trump’s former national se-

curity adviser, Michael Flynn,

pleaded guilty to lying to the

FBI about contacts with a Rus-

sian ambassador — related to

the investigation into Russian

interference in the 2016 presi-

dential election. Former

Trump campaign chairman

Paul Manafort was convicted

of tax- and bank-fraud charg-

es.

Obama has seldom

weighed in on current politics

since leaving office in 2017.

Former presidents typically re-

frain from criticizing succes-

sors out of tradition, even if

they are from different politi-

cal parties.

This summer, Obama

shared in a tweet a link to an

op-ed that criticized Trump for

comments he had made re-

garding four congresswomen

of color, seeming to endorse

the link.

On Wednesday, Obama cau-

tioned against what he called

‘‘opinion wrapped up as fact.’’

Too much focus on polls or

‘‘the intensity of the passion of

a very small subset of people,’’

he said, ‘‘will sway your deci-

sion-making in an unhealthy

way.’’

The former president sin-

gled out climate change, politi-

cal divisions globally, and in-

come inequality as three major

issues that could cause signifi-

cant problems if they’re not

addressed properly.

Obama otherwise largely

steered clear of any commen-

tary on Washington.

Obama offers a thinly veiled critique of president

‘I’mproudofthe

factwedidn’thave

indictments.’

BARACK OBAMA

Trumpassailedoncar-pollutionmove

Hesaysweaker

Calif.ruleswill

enhancesafety

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