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Automakers Challenge Maine's New Emission Standards

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 January 2006, 21:00 CST

By Gregory D. Kesich, Portland Press Herald, Maine

Jan. 5--The nation's automakers have filed a lawsuit challenging the tough new auto emissions standards that Maine adopted last month.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Kennebec County Superior Court, alleges that the state Board of Environmental Protection voted to adopt California-style pollution-control standards beginning in 2009 without first considering information presented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association based in Washington, D.C.

The suit also charges that the BEP overstepped its authority by adopting major rule changes without getting approval from the Legislature. The group is not seeking monetary damages but wants the regulations to be set aside while the state reopens the approval process.

Assistant Attorney General Jerry Reid will represent the state in the case.

He said he received a copy of the case Tuesday evening and was still reviewing it.

Maine environmentalists said the suit shows that automakers would rather fight the standards in court than reduce emissions that lead to air pollution and global warming.

"This shows that they are willing to throw everything they can at this beside engineers and ingenuity to address the real problem," said Steve Hinchman, staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation.

On Dec. 2 Maine became the sixth state to adopt the standards that aim to reduce emissions linked to global warming. On Dec. 29, it became the fourth to be sued by the manufacturers' organization. A fifth state, Oregon, is also is involved in a legal battle over the emissions standards between the state's Legislature and governor.

Although the Maine lawsuit does not challenge the substance of the new rules, the alliance is opposed to the standards and has filed federal lawsuits in California and Vermont that attack the legality of states imposing emission standards that are more restrictive than federal requirements. A victory for the manufacturers in either of those cases would resolve the issue nationally, lawyers said.

"Federal law exists to avoid confusion," said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the alliance. "There would be marketplace chaos if states regulated whatever they wanted."

Hinchman said the current lawsuit could create delays that effectively stop Maine from regulating emissions without a decision on the substance of the issue.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, states can abide by federal standards or adopt the tougher California standards. California will begin reducing tailpipe emissions in the 2009 model year, and states that plan to accept those standards must give automakers two years' notice.

The standards get progressively more restrictive each year, eventually calling for 30 percent reductions in 2016.

Hinchman said that by reopening the Maine process now, the lawsuit could prevent Maine from giving necessary notice before 2009.

"They are attempting to use the two-year lead time to knock Maine out of the program," Hinchman said. "They are trying to create an unsolvable problem" by moving states onto different schedules.

Territo said he would not discuss the alliance's legal strategy, but said the group questions the legality of the process used to approve the standards in Maine.

"We believe that an issue this important deserves to be talked about fully and completely," he said.

Another environmental lawyer called the automakers' Maine case "a little thin."

Jon Hinck, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a group that advocated for adoption of the regulations, said he was surprised the group would sue on technical grounds in state court instead of challenging Maine's right to regulate emissions in federal court.

"It does surprise me," Hinck said. "They should really be bringing their challenge in California and be done with it. This one does not appear that it's going to make much traction."

No hearings have been scheduled in the case. Reid said the Attorney General's Office has not received a deadline for its response.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Portland Press Herald, Maine

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Source: Portland Press Herald

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