Corrections & Clarification: Corrects first name of California's attorney general

LOS ANGELES – The showdown begins Monday between the Trump administration and a handful of states opposed to relaxing fuel economy standards .

At three public hearings that start Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency will argue increased auto safety, among other reasons, is the trade-off for freezing fuel economy standards at 2020 levels and putting aside tougher restrictions due to take effect in 2022.

The agency acknowledges that the move will open to the door to more sales of big SUVs and pickup trucks. Those big vehicles pollute more than small cars, but are popular with consumers amid generally low gas and a strong economy – and they are more profitable for automakers.

The agency said the move will promote auto safety because it says larger vehicles protect occupants better than small cars in crashes.

Fighting those moves are California and other states among the 17 plus the District of Columbia, that sued the EPA over the move to banish tougher fuel standards. California and some of the others set tougher pollution standards than the EPA and seek to maintain that ability.

Leaders in those states say they are still suffering from smoggy air, some of it wafting in from other states. Tougher fuel economy rules, which result in fewer automotive emissions, should stay in place, they say.

Both sides are expected to argue those views at a hearing Monday in Fresno, a farming center about 200 miles from both Los Angeles and San Francisco; Tuesday in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford Motor's hometown; and Wednesday in Pittsburgh, where the nation's steel industry is centered.

The administration's move would freeze the corporate average standard at 41.7 miles per gallon for cars and 31.3 mpg for SUVs, pickups and other light trucks. The standard was supposed to gradually rise to 54 mpg by 2025.

More:Trump administration wants to freeze gas-mileage standards, reversing Obama

More:Environmentalists: New documents reveal why Trump shouldn't lower gas mileage standards

A major lobbying organization for the auto industry, the Auto Alliance, issued a statement in August indicating that it's open to renegotiating fuel-economy goals.

It said its members "support continued improvements in fuel economy" but want "flexibilities that incentivize advanced technologies while balancing priorities like affordability, safety, jobs, and the environment."

California officials say they are going to do all they can to hold the line.

"We're not going to stop," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, joined on a conference call to reporters Friday by Connecticut Gov. Dannell Malloy and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. "This is an issue about leaning forward, not backsliding."

Malloy called the administration's move "an end run around decades of public policy" and lamented that states weren't consulted about the planned moves.

All three public officials noted how pollution and climate change seem to be getting worse, including the destruction from massive storms like Hurricane Florence. They say it should be viewed as a call to action to enact tougher anti-pollution laws, not weaken standards already on the books.

Malloy's solution? "Maybe we should name hurricanes after car companies and car models," he said.

