Schwarzenegger fends off the auto industry

Perhaps it's overdone and stereotypical to say this now, but I still think that it cannot be easy to enter a room knowing you have to negotiate with Arnold Schwarzenegger - Governor of California or not. But the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers' Board of Directors met with the Governor Thursday to try to get him to dump his state's stronger-than-federal car emissions standards. No dice, auto industry.

From Schwarzenegger's press release about the meeting:

"Today, I made it clear to the automakers that California will not back down in the fight to protect our own environment by regulating pollution that causes global warming. We will continue to press the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant our request for a waiver, and we will use legal remedies if they fail to do so.

"Hiding behind the federal government's proposed (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards won't work, and it won't effectively reduce the pollution that causes global warming. In fact, I believe the federal government should adopt California's model; with 13 other states on board, we are heading in the right direction."

And just to back up the Governor's statement about the strength of his state's standards, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released this nugget of truth (emphasis mine):

The California Air Resources Board today issued a technical study that conclusively demonstrates that California's clean cars law (the Pavley regulations) achieves 41% greater total reductions of greenhouse gases nationwide compared to the recently proposed federal fuel economy standards by 2020. In 2020, California's clean car law will result in the equivalent of removing an additional 14 million cars compared to the federal standards.

There's more in the linked release from CARB, details such as how many millions of metric tons of CO2 the state's regulations will keep out of the atmosphere - and much more.

Way to protect the environment, Gov. Schwarzenegger!