• Honda F1 chairman returns to Japan
• Indianapolis CEO targets F1 return
• F1 composites pioneer sells company
• WTCC supporting Make Cars Green campaign
• Watkins to speak at MIA networking dinner
• Events: Biofuels and land use changes - public lecture by Professor Tim Searchinger
• Commons Audit Committee urges Chancellor to stick to fuel duty escalator
• BMW forecasts EfficientDynamics will save 373,00 tonnes of CO2 this year
• CCWS files for bankruptcy

• Manufacturers at Geneva call for common EU rules on carbon-linked charges
• Appro wins contract for Renault F1’s UK Computational Fluid Dynamics Research Centre supercomputer
• Volvo Group invests in emissions-reducing engine testing equipment
• Golf TDI Hybrid concept: 83 mpg, 89 g/km of CO2

• Mosley talks up green F1… again
• Silverstone plan to be ‘reconsidered’
• Renault F1 team posts loss
• New backer for Super Aguri F1 team
• Winners and losers in US merger
• ECO Project team to race at Sebring
• TRD USA president to retire

• EU environment ministers debate car CO2 emissions proposals
• Transport Minister welcomes new UK-Ireland network to promote sustainable urban transport

• Conservatives call for suspension of Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation
• U.S. EPA confirms refusal of California Clear Air Act waiver

The Champ Car World Series sanctioning body has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, less than two weeks after it was confirmed that its race championship would be merged with the rival Indy Racing League.

A filing submitted in a US Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis, shows CCWS has between $10 million and $50 million in assets and owes between one and 49 creditors between $1 million and $10 million. The papers also indicate that the Indy Racing League essentially paid $10 million for all of Champ Car’s intellectual property rights, a mobile medical unit and a non-compete agreement and a consulting fee for Champ Car co-owners Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven of which they will use $4 million to promote the Long Beach Grand Prix in April.

Yauhiro Wada, the chairman of the Brackley, UK based Honda Racing Formula One team is to leave the organisation at the end of March to take up a new role within the Honda corporation in Japan.

Wada, who has been the general manager of Honda's Motor Sports Division since 2000, worked with the manufacturers US based Honda Performance Development division before joining the Formula One team in 2005. In his new role Wada will become the general manager of the Public Relations Division at the Honda Motor Company in Japan. Keita Muramatsu will replace him as general manager, Motor Sports Division.

According to a report in the American Indianapolis Business Journal newspaper Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and CEO Tony George has targeted bringing the Formula One United States Grand Prix back to the track in time for the facilities centenary in 2009.

The IBJ report quotes Zak Brown of Just Marketing, an Indianapolis-based that has been hired by the IMS to help sign a title sponsor for the F1 race as saying that F1 impresario Bernie Ecclestone and the series’ existing sponsors have a “strong interest” in the race returning to the IMS.

Brown told the IBJ, “I know there’s been talk of having an F1 race at Las Vegas or Miami, but the Speedway is the only facility in the U.S. that is up to F1 standards,” Brown said. “Indianapolis is turnkey and ready to go. If the right sponsors can be put into place, I think this can happen in 2009.”

“I think F1 will come back. At this point, I think it’s a matter of when, not if.”

John Barnard, the motorsport designer engineer who pioneered the use of advanced composites in the construction of Formula One cars, has agreed to sell his interests in his UK based company B3 Technologies which specialises in the design and manufacture of components for motorsport and high performance applications.

Surrey based B3T was originally set up by Barnard as a UK design office for the Ferrari Formula One team during the second period in which he worked for the Italian manufacturer from 1995 to 1997.

In his 35-year career in Formula One Barnard also worked with the McLaren, Benetton, Arrows, Prost and Rebaque teams.

The new owners of the company are a consortium headed by B3's former commercial director John Minett who has recruited the ex-McLaren F1 design engineers Steve Nichols and Matthew Jeffreys to the new board of directors.

Competitors in the 2008 World Touring Car Championship, which started last weekend in Curitiba, Brzail, are supporting the FIA's Make Cars Green campaign.

All cars competing in the series will prominently carry the campaign's logo.

Make Cars Green is an international campaign, aimed at reducing the impact of motoring on the environment. This can be achieved in a number of ways, such as through the promotion of more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient driver behaviour; the introduction of new technologies to help motorists monitor their environmental impact; the improvement of tyre design to help save energy; and by encouraging the global use of unleaded and sulphur free fuels.

As part of the campaign, the FIA has launched a public policy Declaration which calls on the United Nations to adopt the first ever worldwide target for CO2 emissions in passenger cars. Make Cars Green also outlines how policy makers, industry and consumers can all play a constructive role in the development of a more ecologically sustainable means of personal mobility in the future.

FIA President Max Mosley said, “It is immensely satisfying that so many competitors in world motor sport are championing the FIA's campaign to make motoring more sustainable in the future. This support will be a major benefit to our mission to encourage ecologically sound mobility worldwide.

Jacques Behar, Chairman & CEO of WTCC series organisers KSO, said, "The WTCC is honoured to support the FIA's Make Cars Green campaign. Because of the obvious relationship between the touring cars and their road-going equivalents, we strongly believe that the WTCC has a key role to play in raising public awareness of these environmental initiatives.”

The UK’s Motorsport Industry Association has confirmed that Professor Sid Watkins OBE will be the guest speaker at its first Business Networking Dinner of 2008

Watkins was the first ever dedicated F1 race doctor a position he held for 26 years. He is also the President of the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety which works to improve safety in every area of the sport including: driver equipment, vehicle design, circuit design and spectator protection, rescue and medical facilities, and race control.

The Networking Dinner takes place at Hatfield House, St Albans on April 23.

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee called on 5th March for a rise in green taxes. Given that road transport emissions in England went up by 12% between 1997 and 2006, the Committee said the forthcoming Budget is a test of the Treasury's environmental credibility and that it must not defer its planned rises in fuel duty. The Committee also said tax on aviation should be increased, and a new rate introduced for 'very long-haul' destinations.

In its report, “The 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review: An environmental analysis,” the Committee says there is little sign the Treasury has taken on board the recommendations made in the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change in its approach to the environment. Green taxes have continued to decline, while increases in spending on the environment have fallen far short of the step-change in investment required, according to the Committee.

(www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/environmental_audit_committee/eac_050308.cf)

Professor Timothy Searchinger of Princeton University will deliver a public lecture on the subject: "How Land Use Change Alters Our Thinking About Biofuels" in a joint LowCVP/Imperial College event in the afternoon of Wednesday 19 March. Professor Searchinger will be presenting the results of his recent study into biofuels and land-use change.

The Abstract of Searchinger's study says: "Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because growing the crops for biofuels sequesters carbon. These analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions that will occur either as farmers worldwide directly convert forest or grassland to produce biofuels or as farmers worldwide respond to higher prices and convert forest and grassland to new cropland to replace the grain (or cropland) diverted to biofuels.

Two new papers in Science magazine have now calculated that the emissions from this land use change for most biofuels that use productive land are likely to mean that these biofuels overall result in substantially increased greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years. Even advanced biofuels from biomass, if produced on good cropland, could have adverse greenhouse gas effects."

Tim Searchinger is a Visiting Scholar and Lecturer in public and international affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is also a Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute. Trained as a lawyer, Searchinger now works primarily on interdisciplinary environmental issues related to agriculture.

For more information or to confirm a place at the free lecture, contact Alison Parker at Imperial College. Email:

(www.lowCVP.org.uk)

BMW is projecting savings in CO2 in 2008 of 373,000 tonnes in Europe, including 54,000 tonnes in the UK. Its EfficientDynamics programme enables its range of vehicles to save 33 million gallons of fuel saved compared to pre-EfficientDynamics BMWs sold in 2006.

The BMW Vision EfficientDynamics X5-based concept BMW showed at Geneva uses a mild ‘ActiveHybrid’ system with a twin-turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine, a new eight-speed automatic gearbox and roof-mounted solar panels to deliver 43.5mpg on the combined cycle and 172g/km of CO2. The diesel engine alone delivers over 100hp per litre, and the vehicle accelerates from zero to 62mph in 8.9 seconds.

Auto Start / Stop, Brake Energy Regeneration and lightweight engineering have been offered on almost all BMW products since early 2007. In the UK, cars featuring EfficientDynamics technologies now account for over 95% of all models sold. On a Europe-wide basis, this is expected to equate to more than 700,000 EfficientDynamics-equipped cars sold in 2008.

As a result of these moves, BMW has been honoured with the Innovation Award at the Auto 1 Awards ceremony at the 78th Geneva Motor Show – an award supported by the motoring titles of 26 countries.

As other cities in the UK and around Europe follow London’s lead in levying green charges, car makers at the Geneva Motor Show called for clearer and common policies, reported the British Headline Auto agency yesterday. Charges are being applied in different ways, on CO2 emissions, and on older cars on engine size, as in London, while the French government provides purchase tax incentives on smaller, lower emitting cars and levies penalties on vehicles with larger engines.

Paul Jarvis, the new chief executive of the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “The auto industry has been producing lower emitting vehicles for the past decade but there is a lack of appreciation of this.

“Vehicles are now more efficient and safer but this does not seem to be fully understood and what we are getting is a mish-mash of legislation which does not help manufacturers in terms of how they need to develop technology and it doesn’t help consumers in terms of what vehicle they buy.”

Bentley, which announced plans yesterday to have all its cars able to run on bio-fuels within the next four years, is concerned that it will still be penalised on exhaust emissions. Sales and marketing chief Stuart McCullough, said at Geneva: “Politicians need to be better informed on these issues. The CO2 scenario is a very short term solution to a long term problem. We have considered all the options open to us and we are choosing to go for bio fuels because we want to strike a chord and push the debate forward.”

Paul Willis, head of Kia Europe, said: “There is a massive challenge on the environment faced by all manufacturers and there is a need for some clear direction. “What I think you will start to see is more parallel models ‘eco’ versions with lower emissions but the industry will have to come up with a number of different solutions. I don’t see any silver bullet.”

Thierry Dombreval, Senior Vice President Sales Marketing Toyota Motor Europe, which is now a member of the European carmakers association ACEA, said that the industry was quite active in its consultations with the EU Commission but there was little sign of any standardisation.

Gerry Keaney, marketing chief at Volvo Car Corporation said: ”There does seem to be different legislation in different markets and while we, as car makers, do have a responsibility, we also need some stability from the legislators. Fuel companies also have their part to play and we all really need to be sitting down and talking about this.

London's new congestion charges based on CO2 emissions come into effect on 27th October.

Appro, an American supplier of enterprise computing systems, has been awarded a contract for a 38TF Appro Xtreme-X Supercomputer for the ING Renault F1 Team Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Centre, a new research facility in the UK. The computer will be shipped and installed by the end of June.

It will provide the Centre with a five-fold increase in CFD computing capacity with the ability to run full-car simulations in addition to the aerodynamic testing of components such as the front and rear wings, turning vanes, brake ducts, and fuel tanks. At current conservative development rates, says Appro, the expanded facility will provide 50% of the gains of a fully-efficient wind-tunnel for less than 50% of the investment.

(www.appro.com)

The Swedish truck and engine maker Volvo Group is investing slightly more than SEK 330m (£ 27m) in a new system for reducing NOx emissions by about 85% when testing new engines.

The concept has been tested for about a year at the Volvo Group’s engine-production plant in Brazil and enables safer and more efficient quality assurance of new engines. While it previously took about 30 minutes to check all functions during testing, the new method generates the same results significantly faster and with greater precision.

During 2008, the new technology will be introduced at the engine plants in Skövde (Sweden) and Hagerstown (Maryland, US) and by 2009 the equipment will be installed at all of the Volvo Group’s engine plants worldwide.

- In conjunction with the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) arranged by the US State Department in Washington, DC the Volvo Group presented seven different trucks, all of which can be driven without any net CO2 emissions, yesterday.

The trucks - four Volvo FM’s, two Volvo VN’s and a Mack Pinnacle hybrid truck - are equipped with engines modified to operate with seven different renewable fuels or fuel combinations.

An environmental programme developed by the American and Swedish governments was launched last autumn, in which the Volvo Group participated, was launched, aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels in energy and automotive development. For Volvo, this involves co-financeing projects developing alternative fuel powertrainsfor heavy vehicles with the two governments.

VW’s solution to the challenge of creating a family car capable of emitting less than 90 g/km of CO2 combines a 75 hp 1.2 litre 3-cylinder diesel engine with an electric motor and a seven-speed DSG dual- dry clutch gearbox. The Golf TDI Hybrid concept vehicle is capable of achieving 83 mpg on the combined cycle and emitting 89 g/km of CO2 – while around town the vehicle reverts to purely electric mode. That’s only one gram more than the lowest emitting car now available – in LHD form only - Daimler’s smart Fourtwo diesel, at 88 g/km.

The car’s electric motor develops 27 hp and 103 lbs ft of torque, and replaces the conventional starter motor and alternator to save weight and improve packaging. It can also operate as a generator, recovering kinetic energy from the car during braking to charge the 220 volt, 45 kg nickel metal hydride battery which has a capacity of 1.4 kW hours.

The Golf TDI Hybrid has a new grille design and smaller front air intakes to reduce aerodynamic drag and also sits lower than the standard Golf on revised suspension and adopts the front splitter from the Golf GTI Edition 30 to help further reduce aerodynamic drag. The Golf TDI Hybrid is currently a concept vehicle, but VW says a version of it is likely to go into production “in the future”.

The nearest available equivalent model is the new Golf BlueMotion. Adopting an optimised 1.9-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine linked to a revised gearbox and more efficient aerodynamics this car can achieve a combined 62.8 mpg while emitting 119 g/km of CO2 – earning exemption from the forthcoming CO2 -linked London congestion charge.

FIA president Max Mosley has again talked about his vision of a ‘green’ future for Formula One.

In an interview with the UK’s Press Association news agency Mosley said that he wanted F1 to take a leading role in the development of new energy efficient technologies such as kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) and that this would allow F1 to defend itself against criticism from environmental groups. He told the PA, "The trouble is, Formula One is probably by far the most complex sport ever," remarked Mosley. But with Formula One, with the technology we are promoting, they will become cutting-edge technologies for the car industry. Bringing them into F1 accelerates their production out of all proportion.

"With KERS (to be introduced in F1 next year), we will see systems that give 80 horsepower for six seconds every lap as it is able to store that amount and release it again. The equivalent in normal terms is like putting a small child in a car. When it slows at traffic lights from 50mph, it will be able to accelerate up to that speed again without burning any petrol. Can you imagine the same device in every London taxi? It would be dramatic.

"It is inconceivable in a few years' time that when you lift off the accelerator or you brake, energy is burned, turning it into heat and it then going into the atmosphere. Instead, it will be stored when the car stops and re-used when it starts up again. The sooner we do that, the greater the benefit to society and the environment.

"By bringing it into Formula One, we've accelerated research and thinking in those areas out of all recognition. It will then be very difficult for any environmentalist to attack us on the grounds our cars use around 60 to 70 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres. We can say we are transforming the speed these technologies will enter into the car industry, and also very importantly, making the public aware."

The so called Masterplan for the redevelopment of the UK’s Silverstone race circuit near Northampton is to be sent back to the local council to be ‘reconsidered’.

According to a report in the Buckingham Today newspaper, close to 100 Silverstone village residents attended a meeting, held at the South Northamptonshire Council offices in Towcester last week to express their concerns over the development brief drawn up by South Northants Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council and agreed by the SNC cabinet earlier this month.

A key concern for the residents is that the brief, which provides guidelines for future planning applications, could result in nearly 200 new homes being built on the outskirts of the village, which they feel would place further stress on roads and infrastructure.

The BT article says that the villagers are worried that future large-scale developments could see their community 'sacrificed' as part of an effort to keep the Formula One British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit beyond 2009. Under planning agreements, contributions from house builders would pay for improvements to the circuit including a new pit lane and paddock.

At the meeting Councillor Ian McCord, asked for the brief to be called back to the full council for further debate and said, "It is that community, that village and that way of life we are being asked to sacrifice on the altar of the British Grand Prix."

According to the latest accounts posted by the Enstone, UK based Renault F1 team a pre-tax loss of £3.6m was made in 2006 despite the fact that it won the FIA Formula One World Championships for both drivers and constructors in 2005 and 2006.

The accounts show that although received prize money of around £15.7m for winning the world championship in 2005 and received funding from three new in 2006 it spent £134m in 2006. Salary payments to its 526 staff accounted for more than 25% of that sum with the team principal Flavio Briatore receiving £875,000.

A German media report says that the Leafield, UK based Super Aguri Formula One team has secured sufficient backing to enable it to participate in the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The German magazine Auto Motor says that the funding will be provided by a group that is believed to be headed by a British company and a Middle Eastern sponsor, and possibly some German involvement and that although team principal Aguri Suzuki has sold his entire 100 per cent shareholding in the organisation, he will remain at its head and the team will continue to operate under the Super Aguri name.

The recently concluded agreement to merge the US based Champ Car World Series and Indy Racing League single seater racing championships has resulted in a number of winners and losers among race promoters.

The Grand Prix of Houston round of the 2008 Champ Car World Series that was originally scheduled for April 27 has been cancelled due to the merger but race officials are already said to be in discussions about the possibility of holding the Grand Prix of Houston in 2009 with the American Le Mans Series and Indy Racing League as the headline races.

Meanwhile the organisers of the Australian Gold Coast Indy race, due to take place in October, have announced that the future of the event has been secured for another six years, even though it’s standing in the newly formed IRL IndyCar Series remains uncertain as contract requirements with US cities make it difficult to for the IRL to extend the season past its scheduled end in September.

Former deputy premier and Gold Coast Indy chairman Terry Mackenroth told reporters that the event would always be held in October. He said, "It will be part of a series. We are yet to negotiate what the make-up of that is. But it won't be an exhibition race."

The Norfolk, UK based ECO Project team will take part in the opening round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series at Sebring, Florida later this month as part of a new bio-diesel fuelled race programme.

The man behind the ECO Project is Ian Dawson who ran the EEMS supported Taurus Racing team which campaigned a diesel powered Lola in the 2004 European based Le Mans Endurance Series and in that year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Speaking to the dailysportscar.com website Dawson explained some of the rationale of the ECO Project, which comprises a Radical sports prototype chassis powered by a refined version of the Volkswagen Toareg based diesel engine from the Taurus programme which will run on biodiesel fuel made of nuts from jatophra trees.

Dawson said, “The ECO Project is here partly to look into every type of material, not just fuel, that can be used in racing. For example, we’re looking at using hemp fibres in non-structural parts of the car: it’s a straw and fibre type of material, which I came across being used in the marine business. If you like, using hemp fibres is a way of saying ‘carbon is massively expensive, let’s find an alternative.’”

Jim Aust, who has been the vice president, motorsports for Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA and president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development, USA for the past ten years, is to step down on June 30.

Under Aust Toyota's racing programmes successes have included a victory in the Indianapolis 500, multiple series championships and the expansion of the company's racing activities into NASCAR. Aust's replacements at TMS and TRD will be announced closer to his retirement date.

EU environment ministers at the Council of Ministers held a policy debate on the Commission’s draft regulation on setting emission performance standards for new cars on 29 February, and the provisional report of the debate provides documentation of several national government’s views, including the UK, which can be viewed at

http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st07/st07027.en08.pdf.

The Slovenian president of the Council reported the the discussions as follows:

- We broadly welcome that the Commission's proposal setting performance emission standards for new passenger cars addresses the growing climate change impact from road transport and ensures that this sector contributes to the achievement of the Community's overall objective of limiting the global annual temperature increase to a maximum of 2°C above the pre-industrial evels.

- I have noticed that delegations fully support the integrated approach as proposed by the Commission, that is, the target of 120 g CO2/km by 2012, knowing that improvements in motor technology would have to reduce emissions to 130 g CO2/km while complementary measures would contribute a further emissions cut of up to 10 g CO2/km.

- We need to strike the right balance between, on the one hand, competitiveness and competition neutrality and, on the other hand, the need to reduce CO2 emissions from road transport.

- The introduction of long-term objectives was mentioned by several delegations and there is a need to study the possibility of including them in the proposed legislation, in order to give the right signal to the industry.

- The presidency will continue to work taking into consideration the outcome of today's policy debate and future discussions within the Council preparatory bodies.

In December 2007, the Commission presented the proposal for a regulation on setting emission performance standards.

The official Council of Europe meeting provisional news release does not mention, as does today’s bulletin from Reuters/Planet Ark, that German and French environment ministers both opposed the levels of fines proposed by the Commission for non-compliance with the 130 g/km CO2 limit.

The EU executive favours fines based on a system of CO2 emissions per km using the weight of a vehicle for 60% of the calculation for penalties. Germany reportedly wants vehicle weight to account for 80%, while the French, makers of lighter vehicles, reportedly advocate a figure of under 30%. French environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo said, "It is hard to accept that heavier and more powerful cars with greater emissions do not have to pay more."

Fines on companies for non-compliance will start at €20 per new car for each excess gram per km in 2012 on average over the whole fleet, and rise to €95 g/km in 2015.

Planet Ark says Germany’s position was supported during the debate by ministers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia - all countries with German car manufacturing hubs - and Sweden. Italy and Romania both backed the French bid to have the percentage reduced, while Britain’s Environment Secretary Hilary Benn sought an exemption for "niche market" operators such as Jaguar, Rolls Royce and Bentley. "We want a demand for a simpler 25% effort by everybody. The current proposal does not pass the competitive neutral test," Mr. Benn said.

Under the Commission's proposals, car makers producing less than 10,000 vehicles will not be required to meet the tailpipe emission target. The proposals will require a qualified majority of the 27 ministers and the European Parliament.

Transport Minister Rosie Winterton visited Preston yesterday to mark the launch of a new UK and Ireland network to encourage innovation and promote sustainable, clean and efficient urban transport in both countries. The CIVITAS initiative includes walking and cycling projects as well as work towards more efficient and alternative-fuel PSVs.

36 cities across Europe are members of the scheme including Preston, Norwich, Winchester, Bristol and Cork. The new CIVITAS UK and Ireland Network will see local authorities work with representatives of the Department for Transport, Irish Ministry and the European Commission to share best practice.

The Conservative Party has called for the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation to be suspended following a further spate of reports and publicity questioning the environmental benefits of biofuels. The Conservatives made their call on the day the RSPB placed full page advertisements in two national newspapers criticising the Government's biofuels policy.

The Shadow Environment Secretary Peter Ainsworth said: "It is utter madness to impose quotas for the use of biofuels without ensuring that they can be obtained from sustainable sources. There is a real risk that the British taxpayer will be contributing to the destruction of the rainforest and rising world food prices in the name of the environment. This would be worse than counter-productive."

In the same press release, Theresa Villiers, the Shadow Transport Secretary, also called for the RTFO to be suspended: "Mrs Kelly has signalled a partial retreat by announcing her biofuels review but we still do not have the clear guarantees we need. Her review is too little, too late. The RTFO will be up and running before the review has even concluded".

Recent reports published in the journal Science have cast further doubt on the environmental benefits of biofuels, reported the LowCVP newsletter of 29 February (www.lowcvp.org.uk).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Stephen Johnson issued documents on 29th February explaining his decision not to grant a waiver from the federal Clear Air Act to permit the state of California to enact its own automotive greenhouse gas emissions legislation, which several other states wished to emulate.

“In this decision,” wrote Mr. Johnson, “I find that the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) amendments to title 13, California Code of Regulations (CCR), sections 1900 and 1961, and a new section 1961 for its Passenger Cars, Light-Duty Trucks, and Medium-Duty Vehicles, relating to greenhouse gases (GHGs), are not needed to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.

“I do not believe section 209(b)(1)(B) was intended to allow California to promulgate state standards for emissions from new motor vehicles designed to address global climate change problems; nor, in the alternative, do I believe that the effects of climate change in California are compelling and extraordinary compared to the effects in the rest of the country.”

Environmental groups, some of which describe the EPA’s decision as factually incorrect, estimate the California standard, if applied nationally, would reduce greenhouse gases from new vehicles by 40% by 2020, while the new federal Energy Bill’s fuel economy requirements are expected to cut light vehicle emissions by 31% over the same period.

Michael J. Stanton, President and CEO of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers welcomed the decision by the EPA: “AIAM agrees with and supports EPA’s decision to deny California’s application for a waiver of preemption. We believe the federal government, not states, should establish and enforce one national regulatory standard for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.”