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European Commission proposes revised vehicle emissions limits

Last week, bullying from automakers and their allies led the European Commission to yank proposed rules regulating new-vehicle emissions. Now the commission has revised its proposal, and car czars are still in a swivet. Under the new rules, carbon dioxide emissions from new cars would be cut to 130 grams a kilometer by 2012. Which probably means something to those who use the metric system, but let's just say it's 18 percent lower than the current average. The first plan had called for a 120 gram per kilometer standard, and a voluntary program already in place aims for 140 gpk by 2008. "The E.U. car industries are at the core of our economies," said commission prez Jose Manuel Barroso. "By positively taking up the climate-change challenge, they will preserve and enhance their competitiveness in the long term." Carmakers said the move would cut jobs and raise prices, whining that their industry was being singled out, and greens said the rules didn't go far enough. Know what they need? A Decider.