Canada Gets Green Car Promise

Canada Gets Green Car Promise

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In the Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic department: Reuters reports that Canada has reached an agreement with major carmakers to cut the greenhouse gas emissions from their vehicles by 25% by 2010. As the Sierra Club notes, this is essentially the same requirement as the emissions-reduction law passed in California last year — the one that the same automakers are suing to stop, claiming that they cannot meet its demands. As the Sierra Club’s Dan Becker notes, “The auto companies are now in the awkward position of telling a judge that they cannot make the same cars in California that they will make in Canada.”

A number of states have signed on to the California proposal (under a federal law allowing states to choose between EPA air quality rules or tougher California requirements); adding in Canada, and over one-third of the North American auto market will have the stricter greenhouse gas emissions rules. This could result in most carmakers simply using the stricter guidelines across the board, rather than trying to build certain cars for Canada & the coasts.

(Via Salon)