[dragonwriter]

> A look at other regulatory law, such as California's CARB and more stringent emissions standards than federal would seem to make Pai's position an uphill battle for the FCC.

I think the FCC position is wrong, but the Clean Air Act has an express allowance for California Waivers (for which there are limited reasons the feds can deny) to issue stricter standards (and for other states to adopt exactly standards for which California has received a waiver) notwithstanding general preemption of state regulation under the Act.

So that's not really a good analogy, since there's nothing parallel to that with regard to telecom law.