Improved Fuel Economy Standards
One of the ways that automakers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks is to install currently available technology that also increases fuel efficiency. In 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) issued new standards (for Model Year 2008-11 light trucks) that raised fuel economy by a paltry amount -- slightly over 1 mile per gallon. The Agency improperly used the rulemaking to assert that California’s greenhouse gas limits on motor vehicles were preempted, and failed to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act analyzing the rule’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. The Attorney General filed comments 
[PDF 1.2 mb / 15 pg] with NHTSA and later sued NHTSA in federal court, along with eleven other states, New York City, the District of Columbia, and environmental groups.
In November, 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of California and the other petitioners. The court found that greenhouse gas emissions are the type of cumulative impact that agencies are required to analyze under NEPA, and that NHTSA could not avoid its obligation to prepare an EIS analyzing such emissions by claiming that climate change is a global problem that includes actions outside the agency's control. The court also found that the rule was arbitrary and capricious under the Energy Policy & Conservation Act. Read the decision. [PDF 248 kb / 90 pg]
Pursuant to the Ninth Circuit decision and the 2007 federal Energy Independence & Security Act, NHTSA in 2008 proposed increasing fuel economy standards for model years 2011 to 2015. The rule is a positive step in many respects, and is designed to increase fuel economy standards to 31.6 mpg in model year 2015. The rule is inadequate in a number of respects, however, including using an out-of-date forecast of gasoline prices (estimating that gas prices will be no more than $2.50 a gallon through 2050), using an unrealistic baseline of current auto production, and underestimating the global warming benefits of the rule. In addition, the rule makes an unwarranted attack on California's motor vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards by stating NHTSA's view that these standards are preempted by federal law, a position already rejected by two federal district courts. The Attorney General filed two comment letters on the proposal, joined by numerous other states. Read the preemption
[PDF 157 kb / 6 pg] and standard-setting
[PDF 169 kb / 12 pg] comments.