Auto dealers and business leaders appeal a decision by the EPA that allows California to establish the first greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks in the US. The appeal sets the stage for a potential attempt to block the global warming rules.
The National Automobile Dealers Association and the US Chamber of Commerce has asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the EPA's decision. The EPA in July granted California's request for a waiver allowing it to push tougher air pollution rules.
The Environmental Protection Agency's decision cleared the way for California to implement a 2002 state pollution law that required greater fuel efficiency in new cars and trucks by 2016.
California's approach serves as a national model for fighting tailpipe pollution, and the Obama administration is expected to release proposed regulations this month to setting fuel efficiency standards at 35.5 miles per gallon (15.1 kilometers per liter) by 2016.
Environmental groups have backed the tougher requirements and said the appeal is an attempt to undermine the Obama administration's efforts to curb global warming.
"It's very clear that the Chamber of Commerce and the auto dealers hope to flatten the tires of the California car standards," says Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.
Robin Conrad, executive vice president for the National Chamber of Commerce's public policy law firm, says there is "simply no legal justification for giving California waiver authority. Global warming is an international issue, not a local one."
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