California Withdraws Requests for Some Tighter Climate Rules 

State regulators said the measures would probably have been rejected by the Trump administration and that they would focus on homegrown legal strategies instead.California has withdrawn requests that the Biden administration allow the state to enact limits on pollution from trucks, locomotives and ferries that are more strict than federal standards, on the expectation that the Trump administration would revoke them.The move will leave the state, which has become a global leader in the fight against climate change, without some tools to lower planet-warming emissions at a moment when Los Angeles is being devastated by historic wildfires. Scientific studies have concluded that pollution from fossil fuels is intensifying wildfires in the West.Under the 1970 Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency has for decades granted waivers to California, which has historically struggled with smog, to enact tougher pollution limits than those set by the federal government. Federal law also allows other states, under certain circumstances, to adopt California’s standards as their own.Waivers can be used to rein in pollutants like soot, nitrogen dioxide and ozone that cause smog and lead to asthma and lung disease. But California officials have also used waivers to curb carbon dioxide, a chief cause of global warming. Gas powered cars and other forms of transportation are the biggest source of carbon dioxide generated by the United States.Nearly all waivers requested by California have been granted, except during the first Trump administration, when President Donald J. Trump seemed to relish revoking California’s waiver to tighten state controls on pollution.In December, the Biden administration granted California a waiver to enact one of the most ambitious climate policies in the world: a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles in the state after 2035. Eleven other states plan to enact the same ban. Mr. Trump has already said he will revoke it. “California has imposed the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all electric cars,” Mr. Trump has said. “I will terminate that.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.