No sooner had European leaders, full of determination in Bali, gotten back to their own affairs than a fight broke out on the peninsular continette over auto CO2 emissions. Across the pond and in contrapuntal echo of that state-EU fight, a state-federal EPA ruckus in the US over California’s similarly desired emission rules hit a new level of acrimonious impasse.
Both have to do with limiting CO2 from tailpipes, for which gas mileage is a surrogate. One wonders (The Tracker’s a blogger, not a reporter, so made no calls) whether the proposed rules in either continent bend for gas-hog cars running biodiesel or something else low on fossil and freshly unsequestered carbon.
In Europe BBC reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, taking up the cudgels for big-car car makers Mercedes, Audi, BMW, even VW etc., opposes European Union rules to clamp down on CO2-rich exhaust by 2012. More detail on the EU’s intent comes from Wall St. Journal Katharina Bart and Stephen Power (pic source) ; Reuters has VW’s objection ; and The Economist (never a byline at that pub) runs the story under the top dek, “Collision Course.”
Back in the USA: Now, why didn’t Nancy Pelosi of California put a little verbiage in this new energy bill so that it didn’t explicitly preempt existing mechanisms for states, such as her own, from upping the ante? Bush’s signature is hardly dry on the legislation and his EPA chief says, despite a Supreme Court ruling and a recent, related Calif. victory in federal court, that the new bill means there is no need to let the Golden State ram a CO2 stopper in the fillpipes of new cars. The feds have it handled, says the EPA man. Lots of other states intend to follow CA’s example, using a provision of the original Clean Air Act exempting California from federal pollution limits. Now, all their lawyers are revving their engines.
The Wash. Post‘s Juliet Eilperin in a scoop notes that the EPA boss’s dictum defies a 100 percent opposite opinion from his own legal and technical staff. Kudos for some inside, if unattributed, word from the EPA. She reports its lawyers expect to lose ;
The AP‘s Ken Thomas and Erica Werner set the tone right, saying the EPA “slapped down” the California rules ; Another double byline comes from Reuters: John Crawley, Chris Baltimore report high the EPA’s distaste for a “patchwork” of rules (they should have added that a two-patch pollution system, with California given a slide, is by many interpretations precisely what the Clean Air Act permits). Reuters put an army on this one, crediting two more reporters plus an editor in a tagline ;
Still More (with more multiple bylines) on the CA-EPA carbon war:
Los Angeles Times Richard Simon, Janet Wilson ; NY Times John Broder, Felicity Barringer with a parade of lawyers and reps from CA and its allies saying EPA’s going down on this one ; San Francisco Chronicle Zachary Coile, Bob Egelko, Matthew Yi ; Wall St. Journal Mike Spector, Christopher Conkey ;
AND FINALLY –
What the Heck Dept: good old Detroit irony – The amazing high-carbon-flaunting new Corvette:
GM soon will produce the best Corvette ever – by standards of the last century. And it has a symbolic flourish. The car-mag AutoWeek‘s Mac Morrison reports on GM’s latest carbon-rich car of the near future. The 2009 ZR-1 ‘Vette will have more than 600 horsepower from its aluminum block, supercharged V8 engine, with a hood window so gearheads can see the induction gizmos. Best yet, to show its engineers’ devotion to efficiency, a key styling element will be unpainted black panels of lightweight carbon fiber adorning its roof. Now that, climate skeptic car guys will burble, is a carbon footprint! Zero to 60 in 3.7 sec. This toy for rich boys is so dumb … and god, and no doubt, a total roaring blast to drive.
AP‘s Tom Krisher reports, also today, that this ZR-1 may be the last of its breed. Even its chief engineer thinks so. Says here, for such a hot car, this one has decent enough mileage, though.
-CP
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