The White House may be standing down, or at least standing aside, from its threats to attack the waiver that allows California to set the toughest air quality standards in the United States.

That decision would be particularly important as California sets out to defend automobile emission standards that Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has vowed to roll back.

“The waiver is not under review,” Pruitt told a congressional budget hearing last week, in response to what the Sacramento Bee describes as a “pointed question” from subcommittee chair Ken Calvert (R-CA). “This has been something that has been granted, going back to the beginning of the Clean Air Act, because of the leadership California demonstrated.”

Calvert “said the waiver has broad bipartisan support in California,” the Bee notes.

“California’s air pollution standards are the toughest in the nation, for a reason: More Californians breathe dirty air than people elsewhere in the country,” explains reporter Dale Kasler. “The federal law gives California the right to seek waivers from the EPA in order to impose tougher standards. Other states can then follow California’s lead. Dozens of waivers have been granted over the years.”

California is also pushing Volkswagen to install electric vehicle chargers in disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by air pollution, as part of the settlement resulting from the company’s diesel emissions scandal. The California Air Resources Board instructed VW to “make every effort” to direct 35% of the installations to poor neighbourhoods in its first 30-month investment cycle. And last week, House and Senate budget bills required CARB to “ensure to the maximum extent allowable” that VW hits the target.