California Emission Law Has Its Day In Court

Unlike current auto emission regulations that target smog precursors and other pollutants, CA's new rules are designed to reduce carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas, from cars and light trucks by 25 percent and from sport utility vehicles by 18 percent."

“The so-called carbon dioxide, greenhouse-gas emissions standards, or whatever label California puts on its standards, are in fact fuel-economy standards,” said Andrew Clubok, an attorney representing the lawsuit's main plaintiff, Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep Inc. “The only way to reduce carbon dioxide is to increase fuel economy.”

"Attorneys for Chrysler-Jeep and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers argued that California is prohibited from enacting its emission standards under the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

That 1975 law gives the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the exclusive ability to set national gas mileage rules. The automakers contend that California is trying to do that on its own through the regulations on tailpipe emissions."

California's attempt to limit tailpipe emissions is a key component of a broader state effort to reduce its emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The state wants to cut the amount of such gases to 1990 levels by 2020.

The projected reduction in vehicle emissions accounts for about one-third of the state's strategy, said Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. If the court rejects the state's tailpipe emissions, the factory regulations (in Assembly Bill 32) might need to be delayed by the governor, she said during negotiations last month on the bill.

"The auto regulations stem from legislation (AB 1497) authored by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Woodland Hills, and signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2002. The air board spent two years devising the regulations."