Pavley Needs Our Support

What's the best way to get the world's automakers on your bad side? Try to enact a law requiring them to produce cleaner cars. When California passed AB1493, known as the Pavley law, automakers lined up to fight this bill, which would phase in regulations that require them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30% by 2016. Automakers argue that this bill is a thinly-veiled attempt to regulate fuel economy, which can only be set at the federal level. California disagrees, saying that they already have the legal power to control CO2 emissions since emission requirements are set at the state level, and they're just tightening the belt. The legal battle is set for 2007.
What's surprising is the number of automakers lined up on the side against the environment. Toyota, Ford, Honda--all the automakers we were just starting to trust again--have joined forces with the rest of the world's auto makers to fight Pavley. It seems they can make a fuel-efficient car when consumers tell them they'll buy, but they're not going to develop technologies to fight greenhouse gas emissions without a fight. [Source: Yahoo News]

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