Automakers Fight Emission Controls

Automakers are fighting stricter emissions controls designed to combat climate change proposed in 13 states (including Connecticut), according to the Hartford Courant.

Even if the proposed limits on "greenhouse gas" emissions were applied to every new car in the world - and so far only 13 states, including Vermont and Connecticut, have adopted them and they still need approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - the result would be a tiny fraction of a degree drop in temperature, a leading scientist testifying in favor of the rules conceded.To the auto industry, that means the requirement that it cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2016 "is purely symbolic," said industry lawyer Andrew B. Clubok. "There is no environmental impact benefit to this regulation."But advocates say the reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming has to start somewhere. The proposed regulation, promulgated by California in 2004 and adopted by 12 other states since then, "will not solve global warming by itself," Scot L. Kline of the Vermont attorney general's office acknowledged. "But Vermont it trying to do its fair share."

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