It's a Christmas Miracle!

Judge tosses out Big Auto's suit against California

Posted at 12:02 PM on 12 Dec 2007

Automakers must have been bad this year, because Santa has given them a big holiday disappointment. And by Santa we mean U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii, who today declared that California has the authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles, and tossed out automakers' lawsuit against the state. Automakers had sued in 2004 when California passed a law requiring vehicles on its roads to produce 30 percent less greenhouse gases by 2016. Sorry, suckas! That's one down, one to go in California's fight to do right by the climate and the people who breathe its air; the state can't implement its program until it receives a waiver from the U.S. EPA. California has sued to speed up that decision; an EPA spokesperson says the determination will come down by the end of December. If the EPA says yea, as many as 16 other states may implement California's standards.

sources: Associated Press, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle
see also, in Gristmill: California judge rules against automakers in lawsuit against Calif. tailpipe GHG standards

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From Miracle to Movement

How disturbing is it that the court decision upholding regulations passed into law by the people of CA to clean up the air, is deemed a miracle, which it is. For the past two years the industry has been fighting tooth and nail to keep status quo gas guzzlers on the roads, even though we stand before climate chaos. The industry continues to turn to ride their PR machines promoting their climate chaos machines. How ironic is it that just three weeks ago the industry was pumping there fists in the air celebrating the "Green Car of the Year" a full size Chevy Yukon SUV, while today they are clinching their fists realizing the bubble has finally burst. Nearly 1/3 of the United States are lining up behind CA and leaving the federal government is their dust, as real action, real legislation, and real solutions are spurring what is likely to be a momentous shift towards achieving emission free vehicles. Folks at Toyota, Ford, and GM continue to remind me of a first grader who refuses to learn tie their shoe. "I can't do it" they whine as they trip over themselves while the cool kids (Tesla, Zen, and a number of emission free vehicle start-ups) dance around them, showing them that it is possible. Big auto is the only industry that seems to see who can drag their feet the slowest towards reaching emission free, oil free reality. Could you image if the the computer industry worked on this premise? I'd still be trying to figure out where I put my floppy disk.
The decision today is a huge one, but is far from the end all solution. Big auto is not just going to roll over, they are going to continue to oppose immediate action we need to curb climate chaos, and break our addiction to oil. Listen... you can hear them now scrambling around DC calling for the EPA to deny CA the wavier (even though one of these waivers has never been denied) that has been waited on for for 2 years in order to put this law into effect.
As one of America's cornerstone industries, the auto industry has a critical role to play in supporting a State's innovative efforts to defend its people, its environment and its future. This lawsuit stood as an opportunity for the industry to drop out of opposition become a leader in archiving an emission free future. They passed on it, and highlighted what will be their continued resistance to creating clean transportation. The end day result, however, highlights that the tides have turned states, communities, and individuals are no longer waiting for industry to lead. There is still time for Toyota, Ford, GM and all the others to become a part of the solution, but it looks like they are going to be following the lead of the climate movement from here on out. We're driving this bus now, and we aren't puling over.

by nmagel at 1:39 PM on 12 Dec 2007

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