The Trump administration is trying to strip California of its rule-making authority, and roll back fuel economy and air quality standards.

Now the DoJ has launched an antitrust investigation into the auto-makers’ agreement, because ……… Attorney General Robert Barr is a corrupt partisan rat-f%$#, I guess?

The Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into four auto makers that forged a deal with California on vehicle-emissions standards, escalating the conflict between the Trump administration and Sacramento over environmental regulations.

Justice Department lawyers are seeking to determine whether Ford Motor Co. , Honda Motor Co. , BMW AG and Volkswagen AG broke federal competition law by agreeing with California to follow tailpipe-emissions standards beyond those proposed by the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the probe.

California officials, joined by Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists, branded the probe a political hit orchestrated by a White House angry over any attempt to subvert its authority.

“This investigation is nothing but an attempt by the Trump Administration to retaliate against these companies and stoke fear in others,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

………

President Trump has sought to roll back Obama-era mandates intended to reduce the auto industry’s contribution to climate change. California regulators have said they are willing to ease mandates, but they don’t want to go as far as the proposals from the Trump administration, which has said it wants to eliminate all upcoming increases in efficiency requirements.

The administration is challenging the legal authority that has given the state de facto control over environmental regulations for roughly a third of the U.S. car market.

The Justice Department sent letters to each of the companies within the past two weeks to alert them of the department’s interest and to request information, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. The department in the letters said no conclusions have been reached, but also said the deal may have antitrust implications, the person said.

On Friday, top lawyers at the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to California’s top air regulator, Mary Nichols. It urged her to dissociate the state from the four auto makers, saying the commitment may result in undefined legal consequences.

This stinks worse than Trump’s golf game.