Congressman Rick Boucher trying to block state CO2 regulations

Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia is trying to head off the EPA decision on granting a waiver to California so they can regulate greenhouse gases. At the same time as Congress is working on new fuel economy regulations, Boucher has drafted a bill that, if passed, would prevent any state from enforcing any greenhouse gas restrictions on vehicles. The legislation is intended to be part of a larger climate change control bill. Part of the new legislation would include having the EPA establish a system for reporting the CO2 emissions of new vehicles and having exclusive privileges to regulate those emissions.
Clean Air Watch president Frank O'Donnell thinks Boucher has introduced this bill at the behest of John Dingell, who is resistant to the new fuel efficiency requirements introduced by others in Congress. The Boucher bill also includes the same standards as the Carl Levin proposal in the Senate at 36mpg for cars by 2022 and 30mpg for trucks by 2025.

These standards are totally absurd and there is absolutely no reason carmakers can't meet more stringent standards that have already been proposed. The fuel economy standards that have already been proposed should not be backed off. The only thing that should be changed is that something should be done on the demand side to stimulate market demand for more efficient vehicles.

Update: Boucher, Levin and Dingell are all Democrats

Related:

• Automakers offer an option out of CAFE regs
• Beefed up CAFE standards - 35 mpg by 2020 - approved by Senate panel
• Sen. Levin: increase in CAFE standard would kill Chrysler

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]