The standoff over the Trump administration's proposed fuel economy and emissions standards rollback and California's vow to fight any changes just became far more tense.
The Department of Justice has launched an antitrust investigation into BMW, Ford, Honda and Volkswagen over their agreement to honor voluntary emissions regulations with the state of California, The Wall Street Journal reports. The deal, announced back in July, was seen as a direct rebuke to the Trump administration's plans to freeze fuel economy and emissions regulations at 2020 levels.
The DOJ probe seeks to learn if the four automakers broke federal antitrust laws by agreeing with one another to follow emissions standards outside of the proposed regulations from the Trump administration. The newspaper cited sources close to the matter, but Honda confirmed the DOJ has, indeed, been in contact with the automaker.
"Honda will work cooperatively with the Department of Justice with regard to the recent emissions agreement reached between the State of California and various automotive manufacturers, including Honda," the company said in a statement.
A Ford statement on the investigation said, "We have received a letter from the Department of Justice and will cooperate with respect to any inquiry," as relayed in a tweet by auto industry reporter Jeff Gilbert.
Ford statement on Justice department investigation to see if they, along with Honda, BMW and VW violated anti-trust rules by agreeing to fuel economy deal with California “We have received a letter from the Department of Justice and will cooperate with respect to any inquiry.”
See Jeff Gilbert's other Tweets