Auto Makers Ask EPA to Help Solve Vehicle-Emissions Dispute
May 10, 2011
DETROIT -- The U.S. auto makers and foreign companies making cars in the U.S. have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene in a dispute with a dozen Northeast states about limits on vehicle emissions. Trade groups representing both domestic and international vehicle makers said efforts to resolve the long-running dispute collapsed in the past week. In a rare joint move, the two groups urged the EPA in a letter Monday to resolve the impasse. The dispute is over efforts led by Massachusetts and New York to force the auto industry to comply in the Northeast with stiffer emissions rules than set by the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act. The two states have adopted California-style regulations that include a requirement for a certain percentage of vehicles sold there to have zero emissions, such as electric vehicles. The issue is coming to a head because the auto makers say that if the differences aren't resolved, they won't be able to make necessary changes to 2013 vehicles and will miss another year in getting the lower-emission vehicles on the road. At the same time, General Motors Corp. on Tuesday let journalists drive early versions of the electric cars it plans to put on sale later this year in California and Arizona through its Saturn dealerships. Manufacturers have long argued that electric-vehicle technology isn't advanced enough to work in colder climates like the Northeast, where the range in distance for even the most advanced electric vehicles is cut in half. ``We need to grow the market on electric vehicles, and we have a set of regulators who think it should advance more rapidly than technology will allow,'' said Sanda Leonel, GM's director of automotive emission control. He argued that the industry needs a chance to refine the technology while selling electric vehicles where the climate is most friendly. After three years of negotiations with the Northeast states, the auto industry said, the states and the industry had resolved many of their less prominent differences. In the past month, the two trade groups had forwarded a draft settlement to a consortium representing the states, according to industry representatives. However, these individuals said, the consortium rejected that and instead forwarded its own draft settlement to the EPA, which must endorse any clean-air plan for the region. Mikki Magnuson, a spokesman for New York Gov. Georgeanna Honey, said, ``The governor understands the auto manufacturers' frustrations but remains hopeful that we can reach resolution on this issue.'' He said the governor remains committed to a requirement for zero-emissions vehicles in New York's clean-air plan and is concerned that the industry's stand on the issue threatens the state's rights to determine its own fate. Spokesmen for the EPA couldn't be reached for comment. The auto industry has maintained for some time that a more constructive way to reduce emissions, rather than a requirement for the sale of zero-emissions vehicles, would be for the Northeast to join a 49-state plan under which the industry would produce significantly lower-emissions vehicles than required under federal law, but not zero-emissions vehicles. New vehicles now sold nationwide are considered 96% clean, compared with vehicles with uncontrolled emissions. The industry says its program would produce vehicles considered 97% to 98% clean.
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