• Motor.California sues Donald Trump after rescission of his authority to fix car emissions

The escalation of tension between Washington and California gives no respite. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to Sacramento threatening to suspend federal transportation funds as punishment for its "chronic air quality problems." At stake there are billions of dollars.

The brief, by Andrew Wheeler, head of the EPA, indicates that the Golden State has not been able to present a convincing plan to address a problem that affects 34 million people. It is the calculation they make of the population that ensures that they are being affected by the prevailing pollution.

That in one of the most ambitious states in environmental matters and that a few days ago filed a lawsuit against Trump for rescinding his authority to set his own pollutant limits on vehicles. The Republican president, who has mocked climate change until exhaustion, put the interests of the automotive industry before the 'green' road map of the state ruled by the liberal Gavin Newsom.

Now, and despite the contradictory case, his Administration states that "California has the worst air quality in the United States" and that nowhere in the country are so many people exposed to the dangers of pollution. If the problem was not remedied, they would cut the funds that are destined each year to the California highway system.

Newsom, which began its term in January this year, interpreted the letter as "a threat of pure revenge" following the lawsuit filed by California last week. "While the White House tries to intimidate us and invent new ways to dirty our air, California is defending our environmental laws from attacks by President Trump. We will not return to the days when our air was muddy. We will not relive whole summers when spending time outdoors was a risk to public health, "he said.

Experts point out that it is an unusual measure, taking into account the problems in a significant handful of states that exceed, in some counties, the permitted levels of air pollution in a systematic way.

The threat comes days after Trump himself visited California and complained about pollution in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the two main cities in the country's most populous state. "It's a terrible situation in Los Angeles and San Francisco," he wrote on his Twitter account. "And we will give them to San Francisco - they are (committing) a total violation - we will give them a warning very soon."

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