California's Clean Cars Law

Updates on clean car progress - In June 2009, EPA granted California's long-standing request for a Clean Air Act waiver, immediately clearing the way for vehicle emissions standards to cut global warming pollution in California and 13 other states.

In 2011, rather than face a patchwork quilt of different state regulations, automakers agreed to a stricter federal standard.

Read below to learn how this progress was made, starting with California's 2002 Clean Cars Law.

A history of legal battles

In 2002, California passed the Clean Cars Law, the nation's first binding limits on global warming pollution from tailpipes. The state's cars are responsible for almost one third of its global warming pollution. Cutting tailpipe pollution is essential to meet the requirements set under California's global warming law, AB32, the nation's first statewide cap on greenhouse gas emissions, passed in 2006.

Thirteen states have since followed California's lead and adopted the Clean Cars standards:  Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.  In 2004, the auto industry filed lawsuits in California and three other states to derail the law.

A series of court victories in 2007 — including a landmark Supreme Court ruling affirming EPA’s power to address global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act — paved the way for putting the Clean Cars Law into effect.

EPA prevents state from setting more rigorous standards

But one hurdle remains. California may set more rigorous clean air standards than federal requirements, once the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants it a waiver to do so. In a surprising denial of both science and the law, EPA rejected the state's request for a waiver. Before this denial, EPA had consistently and repeatedly granted California’s requests.

Environmental Defense Fund joined a coalition of states and environmental groups to challenge EPA's decision, and legal action is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

The Obama administration and the new Congress offer a great opportunity to change course on climate, to grant California’s request and to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. In a November 2008 speech, President Barack Obama promised a "new chapter" on climate change — starting with a national cap-and-trade system.

Governor sends letter urging Obama to back waiver

On Jan. 21, 2009, California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger formally asked President Barack Obama to "immediately reconsider" the Bush administration's denial of California's Clean Car program to cut global warming pollution. 

In a letter calling the 2008 denial by the Bush administration's EPA "fundamentally flawed," Governor Schwarzenegger said that approving California's landmark program "will not only reduce these emissions, but will also save drivers money and reduce our nation's dependence on imported oil."

Details: What the Clean Cars Law does

California estimates that the Clean Cars program will reduce overall greenhouse gas emission from passenger cars by:

• 18 percent in 2020  and
• 27 percent cut in 2030.

The regulations do not call for radical vehicle changes. They are designed instead to tap technologies, methods, and cleaner fuels available now to reduce emissions of four chief greenhouse gases (GHG) contributing to global warming:

• carbon dioxide,
• methane,
• nitrous oxide, and
• hydrofluorocarbons.

The standards apply to new motor vehicles and require declining fleetwide average emissions. California is the only state that can set its own motor vehicle emission standards, though other states may follow once it has done so. To carry out the program, California must:

• set standards at least as stringent as federal ones and
• receive a waiver from the EPA.

Other states adopt law, promising more pollution cuts

Because the Clean Air Act allows states to follow California's low emissions vehicle (LEV) program, many states have opted to adopt the Clean Cars law. Such widespread adoption strengthens the law's potential to combat climate change. So far, 13 states have adopted the California standards, and several others are considering doing so. All together, these states represent almost half the U.S. population. States in bold have already adopted the standards.

Clean Cars Law wins a series of court victories

• Supreme Court: EPA can grant California a waiver
  On April 2, 2007, the first major victory in this fight came when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the automaker's main arguments, holding that greenhouse gases are a pollutant, that the EPA has the power to regulate them under existing law, and that greenhouse gas emission standards under the Clean Air Act are not preempted by the federal fuel economy law.


• Vermont judge rules for Clean Cars, clears way for waiver
  Though the carmakers initially sued in a federal court in California, they also filed suits in Vermont, New Mexico and Rhode Island. On September 12, 2007, U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions became the first federal district court judge to rule and Judge Sessions rejected all of the carmakers' and dealers' challenges.
  
  He ruled that carmakers can safely meet new clean car standards. The ruling also held that motor vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards are not preempted by federal fuel economy standards. Carmakers are appealing. (More on the Vermont ruling.)


• Carmakers' suit to overrule California law dismissed
  In 2007, a federal judge in California dismissed a 2004 lawsuit filed by 21 of the world's major automakers against the state.
  
  But their reasoning assumed that the tailpipe cleanup would come from fuel efficiency alone, when in fact other adjustments, such as switching to cleaner fuels and mitigating air conditioning emissions, can reduce global warming pollution from cars. The federal judge rebuked the auto industry's efforts to block the Clean Cars law. (Get details on the ruling.)

The U.S. auto industry has devoted considerable resources in legal and political challenges to California’s Clean Cars standards.

We encourages these companies to “innovate” rather than “litigate.” Collaboration and innovation is an urgent imperative in light of the serious financial challenges facing the industry.