Canada has a Ministry of Environment and Climate Change headed by the esteemed and very well-spoken Catherine McKenna from Ottawa Centre.

McKenna, a heavyweight in the Liberal cabinet and an obvious aspirant to the prime minister’s job, is an international trade lawyer who participated in negotiating the Paris Climate Accord. Bravo.

Not everyone agreed with President Obama’s fuel economy and emissions regulatory plan, but it was predictable, it allowed the industry to plan for the long term and it has proven to have helped change consumer and social norms and attitudes.

Alas, nothing she can say or do, no amount of good will, smarts or ambitious manoeuvring, will likely stop the next bit of crazy from the sociopathic numbskull that is U.S. President Donald Trump. The implications for Canada and the rest of the planet are serious if not dire. For the auto industry, what Trump appears poised to do is disastrous.

You see, reports indicate that Trump is about to roll back Obama-era greenhouse-gas and fuel-economy standards that really have been the industry guide dating back to 2008-2009. Obama’s plan was given real teeth, however, in 2011, and since then the car business globally has invested hundreds of billions in a drive to reduce greenhouse gases, improve overall fuel economy and electrify the passenger car fleet.

Trump is finding cover for his utter stupidity in a long-standing and somewhat disingenuous request of a slightly schizophrenic auto industry. That is, the car business, through its industry group, begged Trump during the U.S. election campaign to relax Obama-era standards. Even so, individual companies – Ford Motor and General Motors among them — say they are generally supportive of the Obama-era regulations. Don’t kill them, they, say, but do build in a little flexibility, if possible.

Flexibility is unnecessary and to understand why, let’s pause for a moment and go back to the summer of 2011. Flanked by auto industry titans, Barack Obama announced aggressive new targets on US fuel economy standards. They were generally welcomed as an “historic agreement” that would prove to be good for both the economy and the planet.

Canada, of course, has since fallen in line. It’s government policy. Transport Canada officials have told me several times that its goal is to harmonize Canada and U.S. “regulations as much as possible.” Our government’s priority, then, is to harmonize Canadian regulatory requirements with those of the U.S. Our Climate Change ministry and its minister are not going to change that. And our car business, completely dominated by foreign companies, will sell us whatever meets standards in the U.S. Period.

And so, for about a decade the car business has been aligning itself with ever-stricter fuel economy and emissions rules. That is, in 2008, fleetwide standards were set at 35 mpg (US) by 2016, ratcheted up to a fleetwide average of 51.4 mpg (US) by 2025.

These regs explain why in recent years we’ve seen an explosion of fuel-savings technologies in new cars and light trucks – from  stop-start systems to lightweight materials, streamlined designs, advanced engine technologies, hybrid drive systems and such.

As well, to meet expanding zero-emissions mandates, car companies from Beijing to Tokyo, from Seoul to Detroit, Coventry, Stuttgart and Munich have accelerated their electric vehicle product plans. There has been an obvious change is the marketplace as a result of a near-decade of regulatory compliance and future product planning.

We are now seeing a growing fleet of evermore fuel efficient and electrified new models. This industry has reinvented itself dramatically in the last decade and everyone is better for it. The new technologies planned through 2025 hold the promise of slashing billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions. They are also saving consumers money at the pump and at the EV charging station and will do so more and more in coming years.

Trump, who even his chief supporter, Ann Coulter, now calls “a shallow, lazy ignoramus,” has made it his mission to dismantle as much of the Obama legacy as possible, regardless of harm and without any interest in the well being of the planet. For Trump, this is obviously personal. And so this looming change to fuel economy and emissions regulations.

But there are broader implications to consider.  The most obvious one is for the planet. But even if you are a moron — that is, a climate change denier – you might be able to understand the economic implications.

That is, this Trumpian move will throw the auto industry into chaos and threatens the long-term health of Detroit-based automakers, Ford, GM and FCA.

Here’s the problem. China and Europe, the world’s largest and third-largest auto markets, are pushing full-steam-ahead with ever-tightening regulations. The stated goal everywhere but in Trumpland is to phase out the internal combustion engine and replace it with electrification.

As well, a number of U.S. states, led by California, also plan to proceed using the Obama/EPA template and say they will sue Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency if there is any attempt to force them to comply with weaker environmental rules.

You can see the incipient chaos: car companies forced to comply with an even greater hodgepodge of state AND international fuel economy and emissions rules – or withdraw from particular markets. Shifting and whimsical regulatory standards are a nightmare for an auto industry that needs years and even decades to develop, test, certify, implement and sell new technologies that meet evolving standards.

Not everyone in the car business liked Obama’s plan, but it was at least predictable. It provided a clear template with attainable demands set out on a reasonable timeline. President Dolt, as usual, looks to throw the auto industry into chaos and hurt the planet at the same time.

And there is nothing our Ministry of Climate change will be able to do about it.