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States fight for emissions control

Marketplace Staff Jun 8, 2007
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States fight for emissions control

Marketplace Staff Jun 8, 2007
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TEXT OF STORY

MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: In the U.S, 14 states are unhappy about congressional action they say will limit their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Attorneys general from two of those states will testify on Capitol Hill today. They’ll be defending the right of states to set their own fuel-economy standards. Jeremy Hobson has more.


Jeremy Hobson: California wants passenger cars to be averaging 43.7 miles per gallon by 2016. Other states want to follow that lead, but the auto industry doesn’t want that to happen.

Charles Territo: The California standard is too much, too soon.

Charles Territo is with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Charles Territo: We think that any plan that would bring a patchwork quilt of fuel economy regulations would make it very difficult for manufacturers to comply.

But states would only be allowed to choose between the California proposal and federal standards. Some in Congress don’t want to give them any choice, saying they must follow a unified federal policy.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley just wants tougher emissions standards.

Martha Coakley: It doesn’t necessarily have to be done at the state level. We just don’t want the federal level telling us we can’t do anything and then failing to do something themselves.

Federal standards would not be as tough as California’s. And a recent Supreme Court ruling gave the EPA the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In Washington, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.

TEXT OF STORY

MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: In the U.S, 14 states are unhappy about congressional action they say will limit their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Attorneys general from two of those states will testify on Capitol Hill today. They’ll be defending the right of states to set their own fuel-economy standards. Jeremy Hobson has more.


Jeremy Hobson: California wants passenger cars to be averaging 43.7 miles per gallon by 2016. Other states want to follow that lead, but the auto industry doesn’t want that to happen.

Charles Territo: The California standard is too much, too soon.

Charles Territo is with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Charles Territo: We think that any plan that would bring a patchwork quilt of fuel economy regulations would make it very difficult for manufacturers to comply.

But states would only be allowed to choose between the California proposal and federal standards. Some in Congress don’t want to give them any choice, saying they must follow a unified federal policy.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley just wants tougher emissions standards.

Martha Coakley: It doesn’t necessarily have to be done at the state level. We just don’t want the federal level telling us we can’t do anything and then failing to do something themselves.

Federal standards would not be as tough as California’s. And a recent Supreme Court ruling gave the EPA the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In Washington, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.

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