The Trump administration's plan seeks to take away from California its long-standing legal ability to set its own pollution standards for cars. That tool has proved key to California cleaning up the air in its smoggy cities.

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During the Obama administration, the federal government and California agreed to be on the same page and craft a uniform set of standards. That meant car manufactures did not have to produce automobiles under two regulatory regimes. Along with the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which was meant to rein in climate-warming emissions from coal-fire power, the fuel-economy standards for cars were one of President Obama's main efforts to halt the nation's contributions to climate change.

In response, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency did something unexpected under Trump: They, unlike the president himself, acknowledged climate change is happening. But they argued that since the world is already on track to warm by seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, there was little the federal government could — or should — do to curb the release of greenhouse gases today.

California officials call the Trump administration's way of thinking "a nihilistic and fatalistic view that future generations will necessarily be subject to a climate in which human civilization as it currently exists is impossible."

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"It is also illegal,” state officials say in the filing. They point to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ultimately compelled the federal government to address climate change.

In an interview with The Post on Thursday, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) added that Trump’s “profoundly misguided and dangerous” proposal would harm the car industry and consumers.

The state's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein (D), also challenged the legality of the Trump administration's argument that California’s authority is preempted by another law, which was last amended in 2007.

“As elected officials who were deeply involved in the negotiation" of that amendment, "we can attest to Congress’ intent that California’s authority under the Clean Air Act be preserved," Feinstein and two other Senate Democrats, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, wrote in a letter to EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

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California's Friday filing outlines the potential forthcoming legal battle between the federal government and left-leaning states. California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra (D), and nearly two other dozen attorneys general have promised to defend the Obama-era fuel standards in court.

Read the entire story here:

POWER PLAYS

— More news from Jerry Brown: California's outgoing governor will join the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the organization behind the Doomsday Clock, as its executive chair, according to the Associated Press. Brown, who has been vocal about the need to combat climate change, is already involved with the nonprofit group.

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— “The Democrats will become live players”: Democrats are eyeing serious oversight of the Trump administration’s environmental agenda if they recapture the House. Such action would include hearings and document requests focusing on the reversal of Obama-era environmental regulations, Bloomberg News reports. “Because they are less likely to capture the Senate, Democrats would have limited opportunities to enact laws,” per Bloomberg. “But they can assert themselves in the House."

THERMOMETER

— “This is the worst storm that I’ve ever seen”: The Category 5 typhoon that barreled through the Northern Mariana Islands on Thursday was the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit any part of the United States since 1935. “We just went through one of the worst storms I’ve seen in all my experience in emergency management,” local emergency management official Gerald J. Deleon Guerrero said in a statement, report The Post’s Chris Mooney, Juliet Eilperin and Allyson Chiu.

The federal response so far: On Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency in the territory. Trump declared a disaster in the Marianas before the storm made landfall. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it's starting to work with local officials to assess damage. Nikolao Pula, who directs the Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs, told The Post it will “take months to get up and running.”

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Probably unprecedented: With the addition of Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu, there have been five Category 4 or stronger tropical cyclones that have struck the United States or U.S. territories in the last 14 months. “This is probably without precedent,” The Post’s Ian Livingston reports. “Before this onslaught of violent storms, the contiguous United States was on a run of 12 years, or 4,324 days, without a major (Category 3 or stronger) hurricane striking land. It was the longest such streak on record… That all seems to have changed with Harvey, and in a flash.”

— Nor’easter watch: Less dramatically, a nor’easter is heading to the East Coast, and is expected to “gain energy over the Mid-Atlantic when it interacts with a cold front coming in from the west,” The Post’s Jason Samenow reports.

If you’re in the Washington area: Expect a lot of rain, starting Friday afternoon and ending sometime Saturday. “If Washington picks up at least an inch of rain from this storm, it will be the 20th storm event of the calendar year to produce this much, just one away from the record of 21 set in 1878,” Samenow adds.

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OIL CHECK

— Injury rate jump at Murray's West Virginia mines: Injury rates have more than doubled from the 2013 rate at five coal mines in West Virginia that operate under Murray Energy Corp., Reuters reports. The spike in injuries happened as the company increased the rate of coal produced per man-hour. “Although injuries and productivity rates rose over the same period, the causes of the increase in injuries remain unknown and could include a host of factors in the complex business of underground coal mining,” per the report. The company's chief executive, Robert Murray, is one of Trump's strongest allies in the energy business.

— Chevron eyes refinery buy: Chevron is discussing a potential purchase of a Texas refinery unit of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro, Reuters reports. Such a deal “would give Chevron an oil refinery that can process about 110,000 barrels-per-day of light crude” at a time when U.S.-based oil companies are considering expanding operations to handle increasing crude volumes, per the report.

DAYBOOK

Today

Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy hosts a presentation and discussion of the IEA’s Renewable Energy Market Report 2018.

Coming Up

California Gov. Jerry Brown will speak at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 2018 Annual Dinner on Nov. 8.

The American Enterprise Institute holds an event on postelection analysis for 2018 and beyond on Nov. 8.

EXTRA MILEAGE