Today the U.S. EPA reversed itself and granted California’s Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) waiver request, allowing the State of California to enforce its own GHG emission standards for new motor vehicles – starting this model year. President Obama recently announced a new national policy to increase motor vehicle fuel efficiency and reduce GHG pollution; new national motor fuel standards would start with model year 2012 vehicles. Once the national program goes into effect, California has stated that it will find automakers in compliance with its state standards, so long as automakers are in compliance with national standards. It will be interesting to see how the two standards will dovetail together at that time. For a history of California’s waiver request, see here.
