NY state to cut greenhouse gases from cars

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cars sold or registered in New York
state must cut carbon dioxide emissions beginning in 2009,
state officials said on Wednesday, in Republican Gov. George
Pataki’s latest break with the Bush Administration over steps
to cut greenhouse gases.

Pataki, who is considering a run for president, in May
proposed the regulation to cut greenhouse gases from cars.
California passed similar rules about a year ago to curb
emissions most scientists believe are leading to global climate
change.

The decision by New York state’s Environment Board
represents “an aggressive approach in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and to solidify New York as a national leader on air
quality initiatives,” said Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for New
York’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Pataki and eight other governors in the Northeast also are
attempting to regulate greenhouse emissions from power plants
through a group called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
That effort has yet to be passed by individual states.

“Now New York is taking an all-encompassing effort to get
at global warming both through power plants and
transportation,” said Kit Kennedy, an attorney at the Natural
Resources Defense Council. “New York isn’t waiting for
President Bush or the federal government to take action,” she
said.

Bush, who pulled the United States out of the international
Kyoto Protocol in 2001, eschews regulations in favor of
voluntary means to reduce greenhouse gases.

Last week, Vermont ruled it would cut carbon emissions from
cars. Massachusetts, Maine Connecticut and Rhode Island are
also moving to adopt similar rules.

The auto industry and regulators differ on whether the
regulations fall under fuel efficiency standards, something
only the federal government is allowed to regulate.

“Automakers need a consistent national policy for fuel
economy, and national fuel economy standards cannot be written
by any single state or group of states,” said Gloria Bergquist,
spokeswoman in Washington for the Alliance of Automobile
Manufactures, which filed suit in California to block
regulation there.

But regulators say the rule is about auto emissions and not
fuel economy and that it gives automakers flexibility in how to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation
estimated that the regulations will cut New York’s greenhouse
gas emissions by an estimated 14.9 million CO2 equivalent tons
per year in 2020 and by 26.3 million CO2 equivalent tons per
year in 2030.

New York’s Department of State will finalize the rule in 30
days, Wren said.