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Tailpipe emission standards may get tougher
State tailpipe emission standards might toughen.
President Obama on Monday, Jan. 26, reversed several Bush administration environmental policies.
He ordered reviews that could lead to tougher auto emission standards in states and pressure automakers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles, according to the Associated Press.
Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency to re-examine whether California and other states should be allowed to have tougher auto emission standards to combat a build up of greenhouse gases, the Associated Press reported.
California standards would have car makers boost fuel efficiency in new vehicles to about 36.8 miles per gallon in the states.
Automakers would be forced to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016.
Obama said “Washington stood in their way” of California and a dozen other states’ who sought tougher emissions standards than those imposed by federal government.
“For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change,” Obama said.
What do you think? Are the higher standards necessary? Comment below.
According to the Associated Press, The Clean Air Act gives California special authority to regulate vehicle pollution because the state began regulating such pollution before the federal government got into the act. But a federal waiver is still required; if the waiver is granted, other states can choose to adopt California’s standards or the federal ones.
In 2007 the Bush administration’s Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s waiver request, gaining praise from the auto industry but touching off a storm of investigations and lawsuits from Democrats and environmental groups who contended the denial was based on political instead of scientific reasons.
Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington have adopted California’s standards. Other states are considering the standards.
Read the full Associated Press story here.
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