Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

A6 LATIMES.COM

investigation into whether
the automakers violated
federal antitrust laws by
reaching the agreement
with California.
A Justice Department
spokesman declined to com-
ment on the inquiry, news of
which was first reported by
the Wall Street Journal. The
auto companies said in
statements that they would
cooperate with the inquiry.
California officials de-
nounced the administra-
tion’s actions.
“The Trump administra-
tion has been attempting
and failing to bully car com-
panies for months now,”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said in
response to news of the in-
quiry. “We remain unde-
terred. California stands up
to bullies and will keep fight-
ing for stronger clean-car
protections that protect the
health and safety of our chil-
dren and families.”
Mary Nichols, head of the
California Air Resources
Board, who negotiated the
agreement with the four au-
tomakers, chided the ad-
ministration for seeking to
overturn the deal.
“The U.S. Department of
Justice brings its weight to
bear against auto compa-
nies in an attempt to
frighten them out of volun-
tarily making cleaner, more
efficient cars and trucks
than EPA wants. Consum-
ers might ask, who is Andy
Wheeler protecting?” she
said in a statement, refer-
ring to EPA Administrator
Andrew Wheeler.
The saber rattling
toward the state and the
auto companies comes amid
continued efforts by the ad-
ministration to roll back
Obama administration poli-
cies designed to combat cli-
mate change.
During President Oba-

ma’s tenure, his administra-

tion announced several poli-

cies aimed at limiting U.S.

emissions of carbon dioxide

and other greenhouse gases.

The two most consequential

were a plan announced in

2015 to reduce the use of coal

in generating electricity and

rules negotiated in 2011 re-

quiring car companies to

produce a significantly more

fuel-efficient fleet of vehi-

cles.

The Trump administra-

tion has been trying to undo

both of those policies. In

June, the administration

moved to overturn the

power plant rules Obama

put in place. Efforts to roll

back the fuel economy rules

have been underway for

much of Trump’s tenure, but

the administration has had

trouble bringing the roll-

backs to completion, and it’s

unclear whether the admin-

istration will be able to com-

plete its plan.

Independent scientists

have poked holes in the

agencies’ data, senior politi-

cal officials tasked with

working on the rollback have

left the administration, and

automakers, which origi-

nally asked Trump to soften

the requirements, have re-

volted in opposition to the

president’s proposal, which

they say will hurt their bot-

tom line.

The 2011 fuel economy

rules required car manufac-

turers to produce increas-

ingly fuel-efficient vehicles

so that by 2025 the nation’s

cars and trucks would aver-

age more than 50 miles per

gallon.

Trump’s EPA and Na-

tional Highway Traffic Safe-

ty Administration have pro-

posed freezing mileage tar-

gets at about 37 miles per

gallon for cars after 2020.

While acknowledging the

plan would increase oil

consumption and green-

house gas emissions, the

federal agencies have ar-

gued that the current stand-

ards endanger drivers by

making new, safer cars unaf-

fordable.

Talks between California

and federal officials aimed at

coming up with a compro-

mise broke down earlier this

year, and in June, the admin-

istration rejected a plea

from 17 car companies to re-

start the negotiations.

The automakers fear

that the administration’s

headlong push to roll back

the fuel economy rules

would lead to years of litiga-

tion and uncertainty, which

would harm their business.

Their hesitation, and the re-

sistance from California to

any rollback, has angered

Trump.

“Henry Ford would be

very disappointed if he saw

his modern-day descen-

dants wanting to build a

much more expensive car,

that is far less safe and

doesn’t work as well, be-

cause execs don’t want to

fight California regulators,”

he wrote in a tweet last

month.

The agreement between

California and the four au-

tomakers was a significant

blow to Trump’s efforts. The

companies that joined the

deal account for about 30%

of the new cars and SUVs

sold in the United States. If

enough additional automak-

ers to join the pact — pledg-

ing to adhere to California’s

higher standards regardless

of what the federal govern-

ment does — it would essen-

tially make Trump’s roll-

back effort irrelevant.

In an effort to limit Cali-

fornia’s power in the auto

market, Trump is also con-

sidering revoking a decades-

old rule that has allowed the

state to set car pollution

standards that are tougher

than the federal govern-

ment’s.

That step would prob-

ably put the state and the

EPA on a path to years of

fighting in court.

Since the administra-

tion’s earliest days, officials

have threatened to try to re-

voke that rule. California of-

ficials have denounced the

idea.

California’s special au-

thority to regulate car pollu-

tion dates back to the 1960s,

when Los Angeles was envel-

oped in a thick layer of smog

that state officials came to

see as a public health crisis.

By the time 1970 Clean Air

Act changes took effect, the

state had already enacted its

own tailpipe emission con-

trols.

Concerned that each

state would pass different

regulations, Congress de-

cided that the EPA would set

car pollution standards for

the nation. But it carved out

an exception for California,

requiring the EPA to grant

the state a waiver to set its

own rules, provided they

were at least as stringent as

the federal ones.

Other states could

choose to follow either Cali-

fornia’s regulations or those

set by the federal govern-

ment. Currently, 13 other

states, mostly along the

coasts, have adopted Cali-

fornia’s standards.

California is warned to scrap clean car deal

[Fuel standards,from A1]

CALIFORNIA’Sauthority to regulate car pollution

dates back to the 1960s, and helped curb L.A.’s smog.

Rick LoomisLos Angeles Times

THE EPA,led by Scott Wheeler, joined in reiterating

the assertion that only the federal government can

set fuel economy and emissions standards for cars.

Win McNameeGetty Images

tripped. When he tried to in-
vestigate, flames prevented
him from getting into the
galley, the source said. The
passengers and one crew
member were in the sleeping
area a level below the galley.
During the questioning
with National Transporta-
tion Safety Board investiga-
tors, crew members have
speculated that the fire be-
gan in the seating area of the
galley.
“The galley area was en-
gulfed in flames,” NTSB
commissioner Jennifer
Homendy said, recounting
what the crew told investiga-
tors. “They tried to enter
through the double doors
but couldn’t get in because
of the flames. They tried to
access the galley from the
front through the windows,
but the windows wouldn’t
open.”
A boater who helped the
surviving crew members
that morning said one of
them thought the fire
started in the galley, where
cellphones and cameras had
been plugged in to charge
overnight.
Authorities have not said
whether the investigation so
far has pointed to a specific
location or cause. But the
source said that based on
the crew’s account, the fire
did not start in the Concep-
tion’s engine room.
A preliminary investiga-
tion into the blaze has sug-
gested serious safety defi-
ciencies aboard the Concep-
tion, including the lack of a
“roaming night watchman”
who is required to be awake
and alert passengers in the
event of a fire or other dan-
gers, according to several
law enforcement sources fa-
miliar with the inquiry.
The probe also has raised
questions about whether
the crew was adequately
trained and whether pas-
sengers received a complete
safety briefing, said the
sources, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity be-
cause they did not have ap-
proval to comment publicly
about the case.
The boat’s owners, Truth
Aquatics, declined interview
requests. In a statement, the
company said, “As a mem-
ber of the NTSB task force
committee, we are pre-
vented from commenting on
details of this active investi-
gation. We are committed to
finding accurate answers as
quickly as possible.”
In an interview with
KEYT-TV, Conception
owner Glen Fritzler said the
crew “did their best” to save

passengers but the fire was

just too intense.

Investigators from the

federal Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, Firearms and Ex-

plosives are joining the in-

vestigation into the fire. The

members of the National Re-

sponse Team, which con-

sists of fire investigators,

special agents, mapping

specialists, fire protection

engineers, electrical engi-

neers, forensic chemists and

others, cumulatively have

more than 250 years of expe-

rience investigating fires.

“Our primary role is to

determine the origins and

cause of the fire,” said Carlos

Canino, special agent in

charge of the Los Angeles

ATF. “We don’t put time lim-

its on how long we’re going to

be here.”

Santa Barbara County

Sheriff Bill Brown, who is

also the coroner, said a pa-

thologist determined tradi-

tional autopsies would not

be conducted on the victims.

“Our pathologist is con-

vinced the victims were vic-

tims of smoke inhalation,”

he said. “It will likely be the

cause of death.”

Brown said he consulted

with local, state and federal

authorities before making

the decision to not conduct

autopsies. External exami-

nation and toxicology sam-

ples were taken from each

victim, he said. The final rul-

ing on the causes of death

will not come until a formal

cause of the fire is estab-

lished, he added.

“We’re looking to deter-

mine what happened,” he

said. “A criminal element to

that is always a possibility.

At this point, no one has

been charged criminally. It

has not turned into a crimi-

nal investigation.”

Coroner’s officials em-

ployed a rapid DNA analysis

tool that compares genetic

profiles of the victims with

family samples collected us-

ing a cheek swab. DNA sam-

ples have been collected

from relatives across the

country and from as far away

as India and Japan. FBI field

offices across the globe have

helped collect samples,

Brown said, adding that

samples are still on the way

to Santa Barbara.

Brown also released the

names of nine people killed.

The victims identified Fri-

day ranged in age from 26 to

62. The 34 people killed in
    the blaze hail from across
    the United States and
    around the globe, Brown
    said during a news confer-
    ence.
    Those victims are: Ray-
    mond Scott Chan, 59, of Los
    Altos, Calif.; Yulia Krashen-
    naya, 40, of Berkeley; Allie
    Kurtz, 26, of Santa Barbara;
    Caroline “Carrie” McLaugh-
    lin, 35, of Oakland; Marybeth
    Guiney, 51, of Santa Monica;
    Justin Carroll Dignam, 58, of
    Anaheim; Daniel Garcia, 46,
    of Berkeley; Ted Strom, 62,
    of Germantown, Tenn.; and
    Wei Tan, 26, of Goleta, Calif.
    Authorities have located
    33 of the 34 victims.
    “We mourn their loss,”
    Brown said of the victims,
    “and want to assure those
    who they leave behind that
    we will continue working te-
    naciously to recover all of the
    victims, to determine how
    they died and to investigate
    the cause of this terrible fire
    and loss of life, with the hope
    that such future tragedies
    will be prevented.”

Boat fire inquiry points at smoke

[Conception,from A1]

DIVERS ANDsupport crews work the scene of the Conception dive boat fire on Wednesday off Santa Cruz

Island. Authorities said Friday they believe smoke inhalation caused the deaths of 34 people aboard the vessel.

Associated Press

‘Our pathologist

is convinced the

victims were

victims of smoke

inhalation. It will

likely be the cause

of death.’

— Bill Brown,

Santa Barbara County sheriff

who is also the coroner