Green Car Advisor

Governors of 12 states that want the right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions using an ambitious criteria established by California have threatened to sue the federal government to block what they call a Bush administration bid to preempt their efforts.

Led by California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governors earlier this week sent a letter to Bush expressing "disappointment" in language, buried deep in a 417-page proposal for a new federal corporate average fuel economy – CAFE -- standard, that would prohibit individual states from setting automotive tailpipe emissions limits that would impact fuel economy.

Efforts to control automotive greenhouse gases inevitably require improvements in fuel economy because the major automotive greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide chief among them – are a direct result of the amount of gasoline or other carbon-based fuels burned per mile traveled.

California wants to require a 30 percent cut in automotive greenhouse gases, which would require new cars and trucks sold in the state to be averaging 42 miles per gallon by 2020.

Federal law now requires automakers' fleets to average 35 mpg nationally by 2020.

The interim CAFE proposal issued this week would require passenger vehicle fleets to average just 31.6 mpg by 2015, with new rules to be promulgated after that to get the average up to 35 mpg.

In their letter to Bush, the dozen governors said that, if necessary, they would sue to block the provisions reserving for the national highway Traffic Safety Agency, NHTSA,  the right to set greenhouse gas rules.

The governors cite two federal court decisions that, they say, have rejected NHTSA's claim to have sole authority over automotive greenhouse gas regulation.

As with a now-pending suit by many of the same states to force the Environmental Protection Agency to allow them to adopt California's greenhouse gas rules, the saber-rattling may be more for show than substance.

It can take months for such suits to be heard and by then the Bush administration will be rout of office and a new administration much more sympathetic to the states' position will be in power. The leading presidential candidates from both parties have said they favor allowing states to rules that are stricter than federal standards.

The letter was signed by Schwarzenegger and the governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor