EPA to Let Calif. Set Own Auto Emissions Limits

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday granted California's request to set its own limits on greenhouse gases from autos -- a long-sought victory with limited impact now that the federal government has pledged to impose national limits. That decision grants California a waiver to impose a limit on the emissions from new cars, when no such rules now exist in federal law. The EPA reversed a decision by the Bush administration, which rejected California's waiver request in March 2008. The District and 13 states, including Maryland, have pledged to adopt California's new rules as their own. Automakers selling in these states will be required to reduce new cars' average emissions by 5 percent in 2010, by 14 percent by 2011, and by 20 percent by 2012, said Tom Cackette, a deputy director of the California Air Resources Board. But a White House announcement in May drained this decision of much of its meaning. President Obama pledged that, beginning in 2012, the federal government would impose its own limits on tailpipe emissions. California officials agreed to accept the federal standards, which Obama said will require cars and light trucks to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. That means that the practical impact of yesterday's decision will mostly come between now and 2012, when the federal regulations kick in...WPost