California Suing Automakers over CO2!
Has anyone read the article in the March issue of "car and driver mag" on page 24 written by Patrick Bedard intitled C'mon, everybody let's blame cars.
Its about the California Attorney General, Bill Lockyer suing the six largest automakers for because their products emit carbon dioxide (co2). Its nuts! If anyone knows a link to this article or can scan it in you will find it shocking!
Its about the California Attorney General, Bill Lockyer suing the six largest automakers for because their products emit carbon dioxide (co2). Its nuts! If anyone knows a link to this article or can scan it in you will find it shocking!
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Election year politics.
http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1338
Press release dated September, 2006.0 -
the AG is suing even thought the companies comply with all federal regulations. lockler is a piece of dung liberal who wants to be govenor, just like Spitzer, and he is going to sue his way there 0 -
I did find this!
Cal AG seeks to settle emissions suit Thursday against automakers By Don Thompson ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:13 a.m. February 1, 2007
SACRAMENTO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown is asking the six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers to settle a lawsuit in which the state seeks millions of dollars in damages caused by vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases.
Brown scheduled a news conference Thursday in San Francisco to release details. On Wednesday, he sent a letter to attorneys representing the automakers, asking to meet personally with the chief executives of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
"As I review the litigation and learn more about the disputes, I am struck by the need for California and the automakers to work together to address the profound environmental challenges posed by global warming," Brown said in letters to each of the automakers' attorneys.
Brown, a former governor who won the attorney general's race in November, wants to meet with the executives "to discuss resolution of our pending litigation and (move) forward cooperatively."
Former attorney general Bill Lockyer, now California's treasurer, sued the companies in September in U.S. District Court in Oakland. Lockyer said he wanted to hold the auto industry accountable for what scientists say is their contribution to climate change.
California is the world's 12th largest producer of greenhouse gases, and more of those emissions come from vehicles than any other source.
Lockyer's lawsuit marked the first time a state has sought monetary damages for the effects caused by Earth-warming gases emitted by cars and trucks.
The lawsuit claims California will spend millions of dollars combating the changes that global warming is expected to bring to the state. Warmer winters are expected to melt the Sierra snowpack earlier each year, lead to flooding in the Central Valley and threatening the state's water supply for cities and farms.
Lawmakers already are debating how to ensure that California has enough water in the future, especially with the state's population expected to hit 55 million by 2050.
In December, automakers filed a motion seeking to dismiss the California lawsuit.
Dave Barthmuss, a General Motors spokesman, said executives would consider meeting with Brown and were "always willing to engage in an open and honest debate."
He said GM remains firm in its belief that the original lawsuit "lacks any merit." He also said the company is willing to collaborate with California to bring more emission-reducing technologies to the road.
"General Motors and the entire automotive industry is already putting on the road advanced technologies and alternative-fuel vehicles that are doing the kinds of things that California seems to want us to be doing," Barthmuss said.
Automakers also are challenging a 2002 California law that requires reductions in emissions from cars and light trucks. The auto industry says only the federal government can make such a demand.
Lockyer's filing of the automaker lawsuit shortly before the November election prompted speculation that his action was politically motivated. In his letter to the automakers, Brown avoided criticizing his predecessor but suggested he is not eager to go to trial.
"With the current public, state and congressional focus on global warming and possible solutions, this is the right time for the state and the automakers to find cooperative approaches and resolve litigation in a constructive manner," Brown wrote.
On the Net: California Attorney General: www.ag.ca.gov Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers: www.autoalliance.org0 -
The Patrick Bedard article is great:
He says: For the record, California is not unique in allowing CO2 emissions. Nowhere else in this country-or the world-is there a law or regulation that bans the emissions of CO2. Quite the contrary, emitting CO2 is the everyday story of life. Everbody does it. The average human exhales about 2.2 pounds of CO2 every day. Mother Nature is an ever bigger emitter. If you add up all of man's CO2-producing activities-all of our combustion and brewing and baking, all of our Weber kettles and weed whackers and Mosquito Magnets, plus all of our ranting, raving, and fulminating-we generate only about 1/30th of Mother Nature's output. Decay is her big thing. She invented the compost pile. When formerly living organisms die and decompose they give off CO2.
It's hard to imagine a compound more natural than CO2. Animals breathe it out, plants breathe it in. No one leaves home without it. Indeed, no one leaves this earthly existence without making a final contribution of it to the atmosphere as we return to the dust from which we started.
Ben Steins Column: Suddenly California Hates the Car.
Back in 1969, the senate up in Sacramento, Ca. passed a bill banning the internal-combustion engine in new cars starting in 1975 For those who missed the 70s, the worry then was global cooling, which would deliver us into a new ice age. Down the road, I expect we'll remember this as just another lovers' quarrel between the dreamy state and the cars it can't live without.0 -
california has the strictest emission standards in the WORLD !!! 0 -
Every single one of those idiots behind the suit emit CO2, too. What a bunch of idiots. CO2 is naturally occurring and vital to life on planet earth... 0 -
Facts seldom are able to trump politics. Didn't the Pinto actually exceed the rear end crash requirements of the time when Ford lost the crash related fire lawsuit? I may not have all the details correct, but I'm pretty sure that the requirements have been raised since, but that Ford was in excess of the limit at that moment in time.
I think I'll go back in the records and check that one out to be sure.0 -
cars don't make CO2, people driving cars makes CO2 [:p] 0 -
I say we sue all the ranchers in the country for all the methane their yucky cattle produce! [:0] It's polluting the air and melting the ice-caps! [:0][:D] 0 -
People just BREATHING create CO2. Are we his next targets? how long can you hold your breath? 0 -
They could just ban the cars. 0 -
I just love it. Let Kalifornia ban all cars. No more Hollywood car
chase scenes, no gasoline powered boats, no lawn mowers, no trucks bringing illegal drugs and Illegal Aliens. It would be the end of that State and I would love that. And also, close all airports there.0
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