Houston has the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita of any U.S. city. | Shutterstock

City leaders will make a bigger climate impact by helping people avoid driving in the first place A group of over 400 mayors formed to protest the U.S.?s exit from the Paris climate accord joined a growing chorus of politicians and environmentalists in denouncing the Trump administration?s plan to revoke California?s vehicle emission waiver?a plan to erase the country?s ambitious fuel-efficiency goals and severely hamper the fight against climate change.
Any leader that wants clean air and healthy communities should clearly oppose this move. But true climate mayors should be working harder to promote policies in their cities that would make it easier for drivers to stay out of their cars in the first place?and most of these mayors aren?t doing it. Almost half of the country?s population and about a third of the vehicles on the road are already subject to stricter vehicle emissions standards than current U.S. policy requires. For almost five decades, California has set higher fuel-efficiency standards than the federal government under the Clean Air Act as part of an effort to reduce emissions, and 12 other states have since adopted its standards.
In cooperation with California, the Obama administration set fuel-efficiency goals intended to bring federal standards up to the state?s standards. The auto industry agreed to produce fleets with an average fuel efficiency of 54.5 mil...