All Eyes on Vermont as Auto-Emissions Case Procedes
By Candace Page
The Free Press
Sunday 08 April 2007
The future of the American automobile will be at stake Tuesday when a showdown
over greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming begins in the unlikeliest of
places - a courtroom in Vermont, where fewer cars are registered than in any
other state.
Automakers will ask a federal judge to throw out Vermont's adoption of California's
tough carbon dioxide emissions limits on grounds they are illegal, too expensive
to engineer and certain to deny many drivers the chance to buy the SUV or pickup
truck of their choice.
Vermont and its allies - New York state and five environmental groups - will
defend the rules as a legal, reasonable, affordable and necessary step to combat
global warming.
"This is a critically important case, the first federal court case to
be heard anywhere in the nation on whether states can address the pollution
from cars that is causing global warming. This is a test of whether we can do
this as a society," said Christopher Kilian, an attorney for the Conservation
Law Foundation, a New England legal advocacy group fighting the case with Vermont.
Automakers say cutting carbon dioxide pollution from cars would have little
or no effect on worldwide climate change, while costing their industry, and
consumers, billions of dollars.
"We believe this issue should be dealt with by all sectors of the economy,
not just our industry," said Charles Territo, communications director at
the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions will hear the case without a jury.
Even if Sessions were to uphold the legality of Vermont's regulation, implementation
might be years and years away, if it ever happens. The losing side is expected
to appeal. Meanwhile, similar cases are pending in California and Rhode Island.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which must sign off on the California
standards, has yet to act.
"Ultimately, I think the Supreme Court will have to answer some of the
questions in this case," Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell said
last week.
To Save the Maples
For Vermont, taking steps to control global warming is a matter of protecting
vital pieces of the state's economy and identity: Sugar maples and ski areas
need a cold climate.
So, when California wrote its greenhouse-gas emissions standards in 2004, Vermont
moved quickly to adopt them here.
The federal Clean Air Act sets national air quality standards but allows California
to write its own, stricter standards with EPA approval. Other states cannot
write their own regulations, but may adopt California's. Ten states have followed
California's lead.
Nationally, transportation accounts for about a third of human-induced carbon
dioxide emissions. In Vermont, that number is closer to one-half of the state's
annual 8.9 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
"We thought it was important to step up and fill the vacuum created by
the EPA and the Bush administration sitting on its hands on global warming,"
Sorrell said.
California's rules require each automaker to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
from its fleet of cars, SUVs and pickup trucks beginning in the 2009 model year.
The first cut would be just 1 to 2 percent; by 2016, vehicles would have to
emit 24 to 34 percent less CO2 than in 2002, the base year.
Automakers' legal challenge builds from a single fact: CO2 is the inevitable
result of burning fuel, so the practical way to reduce emissions is to burn
less gasoline - that is, to build cars that get more miles to the gallon.
"CO2 standards are fuel economy standards," Territo said.
California can't write a rule that regulates fuel economy because the federal
Department of Transportation has "sole authority to set fuel economy standards,"
he said, summing up the automakers' court case.
A Question of Pre-emption
Vermont and its allies strongly disagree.
"These rules are about reducing emissions under the Clean Air Act. Just
because they have fuel economy benefits doesn't make them fuel economy regulations,"
Kilian, the CLF attorney, said.
That is the primary legal question Sessions must answer at the conclusion of
the trial: Are the states pre-empted from regulating greenhouse-gas emissions
because doing so will require changes in fuel economy?
Over the course of its 12-day run, the trial will touch on subjects such as
U.S. foreign policy and the likelihood the new emissions limits will create
more smog because higher new-car prices will lead drivers to hold on to their
older, dirtier cars.
Among other challenges, the automakers accuse the states of meddling in foreign
policy because "the president and Congress have committed the United States
to the pursuit of multilateral agreement to reduce international greenhouse-gas
emissions."
For consumers, the courtroom battle over the likely impact of the emissions
limits on car dealers' lots might be most interesting.
Automakers have said they plan to introduce "highly confidential information"
about their costs and prices, plans for future automobiles and marketing strategies.
Some of that information is so confidential, they say, that the public should
be shut out of the courtroom when it is discussed by witnesses.
On Friday, however, Sessions ruled against keeping members of the public out
of any of the hearings.
Vermonters Love Trucks
And what does that confidential information document?
"This will have serious negative effects on consumer choice, the economic
health of many auto dealers in Vermont and on employment in the automobile industry
in the United States," automakers said in their legal complaint. Some cars
would cost $3,000 more, they said.
And there's a Vermont-specific warning: If a carmaker's fleet can't meet the
average emissions limit, it would have to stop selling some of its least-fuel-efficient
vehicles here, and those tend to be the pickup trucks and SUVs Vermonters want
to buy.
Wade Walker, owner of Walker Motors in Montpelier and president of the Vermont
Auto Dealers Association, said that means fewer sales for businesses like his.
"My No. 1-selling vehicle is the F-150 Ford truck," which gets 15
to 20 miles a gallon - well below the emissions targets, he said.
"It's what the consumer wants," Walker said. "We don't force
it on them; it's in the nature of Vermont. People want a truck to be able to
haul things for a small farm, or building around their house, or they may throw
their kayak in the back."
Already, he said, Vermont's adoption of California anti-smog rules for diesel
vehicles has swept diesel cars from his lot.
"There isn't a week that goes by that someone doesn't ask us why they
can't get a new Volkswagen diesel," he said.
Crying Wolf?
Environmental advocates will challenge the automakers on all these points.
For example, they say, California regulators concluded the average cost of
a new car would rise about $1,064 - not $3,000 - because of the emissions
limits.
"This is crying wolf," said Stephen Hinchman, another CLF lawyer.
"It's the same old threat by the industry, any time there is a new public
safety or environmental regulation. Ford and GM said they would go bankrupt
if they had to install catalytic converters. Carmakers can meet these standards
- they just don't want to," Hinchman said.
He points to recent work by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The group had
engineers design a mini-van that would meet, and beat, the 2016 emissions standard
using currently available technology.
Cost, about $300 extra. Fuel savings: more than $1,000 over the life of the
car, designer Spencer Quong said last week.
Sorrell concedes that application of the California rules in Vermont is a tiny
step toward controlling global warming.
Nevertheless, he said last week, "If you don't start somewhere you can't
get where you want to go. We think what we have done is not only legal but the
right thing to do."
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Contact Candace Page at 660-1865 or e-mail cpage@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
A COURT CASE IN BRIEF THE CASE: Green Mountain Chrysler Plymouth Dodge Jeep
et al. v. George Crombie, Vermont Secretary of Natural Resources WHERE: U.S.
District Court, Burlington, Judge William Sessions presiding SUBJECT: Challenge
to Vermont's adoption of California limits on greenhouse gas emissions PLAINTIFFS:
Three Vermont auto dealers, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Association
of International Automobile Manufacturers, DaimlerChrysler Corp. and General
Motors Corp. DEFENDANT: Three officials from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
Intervenors on behalf of Vermont: State of New York, Conservation Law Foundation,
Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, VPIRG
SCHEDULE: Opening arguments 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. Trial continues daily on the
following dates: Wednesday-Friday; April 19-20; April 23-25; April 30-May 4.
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