Court Rejects Fuel Standards on Trucks

[YankeyMCC]

Source: NY Times



By FELICITY BARRINGER and MICHELINE MAYNARD

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SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15 — A federal appeals court here rejected the Bush administration’s year-old fuel-economy standards for light trucks and sport utility vehicles on Thursday, saying that they were not tough enough because regulators had failed to thoroughly assess the economic impact of tailpipe emissions that contribute to climate change.
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Judge Fletcher's Decision (pdf: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/20071116_fuel_decision.pdf)

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, voided the new regulations for 2008-2011 model year vehicles and told the Transportation Department to produce new rules taking into account the value of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The court, siding with 4 environmental groups and 13 states and cities, also asked the government to explain why it still treated light trucks — which include pickups, sport utility vehicles and minivans — more mildly than passenger cars.

Under the rejected rule, the average fuel economy of light trucks was to rise to 23.5 miles a gallon in 2010, up from the current standard of 22.5 m.p.g., but still well below the current standard for passenger cars of 27.5 m.p.g.
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The ruling, which is likely to be appealed to the United States Supreme Court, represents a major setback for both the auto industry and the White House at a time of growing public concern over the rising price of gasoline and the issue of climate change.

Lawyers specializing in environmental issues said on Thursday that the decision had significant implications beyond the automobile industry’s struggles over fuel-economy standards.

It was the third federal court ruling in seven months pressing regulators to take the risk of climate change into consideration as they set standards for industries that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases produced when oil, coal and natural gas are burned to produce energy.

“What this says to me is that the courts are catching up with climate change and the law is catching up with climate change,” said Patrick A. Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School. “Climate change has ushered in a whole new era of judicial review.”
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While the federal government may use a cost-benefit analysis to determine the “maximum feasible” fuel-economy standard, she added, “it cannot put a thumb on the scale by undervaluing the benefits and overvaluing the costs of more stringent standards.”

The appeals court, in a decision that was unanimous on all the major points, also chided the Bush administration for exempting larger S.U.V.’s — those like the Ford Excursion and the Hummer H2 that weigh 8,500 pounds to 10,000 pounds — from any fuel-economy standards.
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When the fuel-economy rules were introduced 19 months ago by Norman Y. Mineta, the transportation secretary then, they were estimated to cost auto manufacturers $6.7 billion and to add about $200 to the cost of the average vehicle. Environmentalists quickly attacked the rules, saying the industry could achieve far higher standards economically and technologically.

That was at the core of the environmentalists’ court challenge, accompanied by arguments that there was no clear explanation for treating light trucks differently from passenger cars and that bigger trucks should not be exempted from the federal standards.
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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/business/16fuel.html?ex=1352869200&en=9538ebd2f4f85245&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[underpants]

1. This is great news

way to go