Deny Emissions Waivers

Statement

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began the process of reconsidering its previous denial of California's request to institute and enforce its own vehicle emissions standards.

Across the ideological spectrum, there is widespread agreement that we must work to increase fuel-economy standards and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. A responsible strategy to provide for our nation's future energy needs would certainly account for this.

However, changing course and approving a waiver for California and 13 other states would only seek to undermine what must be a national effort to adopt a uniform national standard to regulate emissions standards.

Uniformity would be vastly superior to having a patchwork of state standards.

Granting the California waiver would put in place duplicative fuel-economy regulations that inevitably would increase costs for automobile manufacturers and adversely affect the national economy.

Compliance Conflicts

This counterproductive exercise would promote an inferior policy in conflict with the structure provided in the Energy Independence and Security Act. It would ensure a patchwork of state compliance regimes and could actually hamper a national effort to increase average fuel efficiency.

Each state that adopts its own regulations would add yet another hurdle for manufacturers to clear. Carmakers would have various state standards to meet, as well as the federal standards.

A manufacturer could be in compliance in California but in violation of, say, Vermont's compliance standards.

Because of their poor design, the California emissions rules would further deteriorate the economic prospects of America's auto manufacturers, hampering their ability to invest in and produce the green cars of the future.

Completely ignored in all of this is the substantial impact that this policy would have on auto dealers.

In California alone, the waiver threatens to jeopardize 200,000 auto-related jobs and $3.3 billion in wages. The loss in sales could cause dealers on the edge of solvency to shutdown.

In 2008, 125 California dealerships closed their doors. Given the deteriorating state of the economy and lack of solvency in our state's finances, this is hardly the time to enact policies that almost certainly would result in losses of tax revenue and jobs.

Even more puzzling is the fact that regulations proposed in the state's regulatory scheme provide a competitive advantage to foreign automobile manufacturers.

The California rules arbitrarily exempt Hyundai, Ferrari, Jaguar, Land Rover, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and others from compliance, so long as the manufacturer delivers for sale fewer than 60,000 vehicles per year, on average, for three years.

Automaker burdens

This foreign-manufacturing exemption completely undermines our efforts to stabilize the American automobile industry.

I think we can all agree that the United States must do more to increase our energy efficiency while also increasing access to alternative, less carbon-intensive sources.

This transition will not be easy or inexpensive, but it must occur through the implementation of the most sensible and efficient laws and regulations our government can put forth.

The California fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas regulations are not efficient, and they impose unnecessary and costly burdens on automobile manufacturers and dealers as well as consumers in California states.

Accordingly, the EPA should affirm the denial of the California waiver.

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