A version of this article appeared earlier in Bloomberg Opinion
The first comment that came across my screen after the news that General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, along with Toyota Motor Corp. and some smaller foreign automakers, had signed on to President Donald Trump’s legal assault on technological progress in the auto industry was this: “Wimps.” The administration aims to strip California and other states of their ability to regulate vehicle emissions in their fight against global warming. It has…

