Arguing that global warming merits a national solution and not "a confusing patchwork of state rules", the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month rejected a request by California to impose state limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles.
The California regulations would have imposed a reduction of 30% in greenhouse-gas emissions in vehicle exhausts by 2016. Seventeen other states were expected to adopt the standards, which would then have covered around 45% of annual car sales, advocates of the proposal say.
The EPA decision followed federal legislation on 19 December requiring motor-vehicle manufacturers to increase fuel efficiency by 40%, to 35 miles per gallon, by 2020.
Calling the EPA decision "completely absurd", California attorney-general Edmund Brown promised to challenge it in the courts.
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California petition to limit vehicle emissions rejected. Nature 451, 007 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/451007c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/451007c