EPA to let California regulate vehicle emissions

Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 11:17 AM EDT.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed yesterday to let California regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles, the final piece of a compromise by the Obama administration with automakers to set a 35.5 mpg average for new vehicles by 2016, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The long-expected move reverses the decision by the Bush administration to block the efforts of California and 13 other states to regulate greenhouse gases, the paper said. As part of the compromise with the administration, the state will defer to federal rules through 2016, but can set its own rules after 2016 if a future president should back off the national standards, the Free Press reported.

California officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have long argued that California and others needed the power to start tackling global warming, and chided automakers for dragging their feet, the paper said. The auto industry—including Detroit, Japanese and European automakers, along with dealers—had fought the California rules in court, saying they could lead to a patchwork of state-level limits on vehicle sales. All of their court challenges were unsuccessful, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)

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