LOS ANGELES -California officials told the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday that major automakers are already on track to meet the state's strict proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Auto industry supporters disagreed, however, at a daylong hearing over whether the EPA should grant California's request to allow it and 13 other states, including Maryland, to set their own emissions standards.
Automakers and dealers raised concerns over several points of California's plan and said they would welcome a nationwide standard for emissions limits. State officials said they wouldn't accept any national standard that fell short of their own.
Listening to the arguments was the Obama administration, which has expressed strong interest in crafting a national emissions standard that satisfies both the recession-rocked domestic auto industry and a state eager to lead the fight against climate change.
The Clean Air Act allows California to seek permission to set its own air pollution standards, which California did by passing the nation's first law regulating greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle tailpipes earlier this decade.
The state has been unable to implement the regulation because of a series of legal challenges from the auto industry and a decision by the Bush administration in late 2007 to deny the state's request for a required EPA waiver.
Only a week into his term, President Barack Obama ordered the EPA to reconsider that move, amid signals that his administration is moving toward a national standard.
The EPA scheduled a hearing yesterday at its office in Arlington, Va., to solicit public comments on the California request.
California representatives emphasized the dangers a warming climate poses to the state's air quality, water supply and agriculture, as well as the EPA's history of granting their regulatory requests.
State officials also said they believed General Motors Corp. would meet their standards for this model year and 2010. Their opinion was based on information from the troubled automaker's recovery plan filed with the Obama administration earlier this year.
"The technology is ready" for more efficient cars and trucks, said Tom Cackette, deputy executive officer of the California Air Resources Board. "The manufacturers are exceeding our expectations." But Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who has been a staunch friend of the automakers, said California's regulations would handicap the domestic auto industry.
