Ever since the U.S. government passed the newest CAFE regulations — which mandates a 40 percent increase in fuel economy by 2020 — there has been an ongoing debate as to whether individual states have the right to regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. Since that ruling, the EPA has deemed that states cannot regulate such emissions, but that doesn’t mean that California and those states that have adopted California’s stricter laws haven’t given up the fight. But the world’s automakers dealers are now stepping into the debate with a lobbying push of their own.
According to Automotive News, lobbyists representing 24 of the world’s automakers — including General Motors, Chrysler , Ford , Toyota , Honda and Nissan — will begin giving presentations to the nation’s lawmakers in hopes of killing legislation to overturn the Bush administration’s denial of permission to states to mandate their own green house gas regulations.
Opposition to the lobbying push fears that automakers will inadvertently ban states’ rights to regulate all climate-change legislation before Congress.
If law makers rule in favor of states’ individual rights, it would essentially create an inconsistent patchwork of laws and regulations that would cost automakers hundreds of millions to comply with, which would ultimately be passed to the consumer. The automakers favor one uniform standard.
The debate on greenhouse gas regulations is just heating up and we don’t expect a final ruling for quite a few months.
