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California wins legal battle over car emissions |
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A Federal court has rejected the car industry’s challenge to California's landmark law on vehicle emissions. After this last decision, only one legal hurdle remains for California to set up its own emission targets.
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2007-12-13
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"This is the fourth major legal victory for California and a stinging rejection of the automobile industry's legal challenge to greenhouse gas emissions standards," California's Attorney General Brown welcomed the court decision in favour of the state's emissions law AB 1493. In a written ruling, U.S. District Court judge Anthony Ishii concluded on 12 December that California should be allowed to introduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions limits for cars as from 2009 on, rejecting the arguments of 10 major automakers who had claimed the standards were technically and financially unworkable.
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Ishii thus followed a decision from a Vermont court in September allowing the state of Vermont to set emission standards without interfering with federal law. This 2nd major setback for the auto industry in three months increases the chances of AB 1493 passing last hurdles to become effective, thereby allowing to reduce GHG emissions by 30% from 2009 to 2016. Moreover, it could be decisive for 15 other states that have adopted California's limits.* In sum, those 16 states account for 40% of the U.S. population.
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Court ruling likely to influence decisions at federal level
The judge acknowledged that "both the EPA and California… are equally empowered...to promulgate regulations that limit the emissions of greenhouse gases...from motor vehicles". His ruling could therefore influence a waiver request California sought from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) already in 2005. After two years of waiting, California sued the EPA in November for an unreasonable time delay. The latest court ruling "leaves the Bush administration as the last remaining roadblock to California's regulation of tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions," as Attorney General Brown puts it.
Although a spokeswoman for the EPA said the ruling would not affect the agency's final decision announced for end-December, EPA lawyers are already reviewing it to determine whether "there are any relevant ramifications" for how the agency decides on the matter.
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* California is the only state that can set own vehicle emission standards as it began regulating air pollution before the EPA’s creation. Under the Clean Air Act, however, other states can select either California’s rules or federal ones.
More information:
 Court Ruling Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep et. al. v. CARB, 11 December (301 KB)
› Read: "California sues EPA over car emissions limits", 9 Nov 2007
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