US Senate to debate bill to clear emissions legislation

16 May 2008

The US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to take up a bill that would grant California and 16 other US states the power to impose their own vehicle emissions standards.

A decision by the Environmental Protection Agency that denied California and the other states the right to mandate a 30% cut in vehicle emissions by 2016, on the grounds that Congress had passed a new energy bill that requires a 40% increase in fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg by 2020 would be reversed by that bill. The EPA decision was introduced with the support of both Democratic presidential candidates.