New York (CNN Business) General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and a group of other foreign automakers are seeking to become a party to a legal battle between the Trump Administration and the state of California over whether California can set auto emission rules for itself and 13 other states that have chosen to follow its lead.

The automakers say they are seeking to intervene because they want the two sides to come together and find a single national standard that would govern the fuel economy rules automakers would need to meet. They say they support rules tougher than those in place today, although they oppose significantly tougher standards put in place during the Obama administration. Those standards would have raised the average fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2024.

The automakers seeking to enter the legal battle have formed a new lobbying group, the Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation. In the filing, they say neither side in the dispute can adequately represent their interests in the case.

"The decision to intervene in the lawsuit is about how the standard should be applied, not what the standard should be," said John Bozzella, a spokesman for the coalition and the head of a separate group of foreign-owned automakers with US factories. "The certainty of one national program, with reasonable, achievable standards, is the surest way to reduce emissions in the timeliest manner."

But by entering into the suit the way they are, these automakers are siding with the Trump administration in its argument that it should be able to strip the states of their power to set tougher clean air standards

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