josh, in two separate posts, asked: > >> *How* is the ZEV mandate a fuel economy standard? >> >California's recent attempt to regulate >CO2 emissions is not the ZEV mandate. They are, unless I am mistaken, >two very different laws.
You are correct on that latter point, that the ZEV and the CO2 rule are different provisions. To the best of my knowledge, the CO2 standard is being challenged simply on the basis that it is a disguised attempt to regulate miles per gallon. One of the lynch-pins of the auto-makers' legal claim is that CO2 has never been regulated in the past, so this extension of the law by California regulators was not contemplated by the lawmakers who originally granted California the power to lower emissions standards below the federal requirements. But you are correct that this has nothing directly to do with the ZEV. However, the ZEV can still be (and actually is being) challenged on the same grounds. How? A later news post from Bruce provides the answer: >http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2002/10/07/daily36.html >The state Air Resources Board set rules last year revising >the state's "zero- emission vehicle" guidelines. The >revisions stepped back from prior guidelines, which called >for 10 percent of all vehicles sold in California by the >2003 model year to have no emissions, essentially mandating >electric cars. > >The revised rules, driven in part by the technical and >marketing problems with electric vehicles, cut the >requirements to 2 percent electric cars (about 4,600 >vehicles) and a mix of gasoline-electric hybrids and "very >low emission" vehicles. The fuel economy of the hybrids >would be a factor in how much they count against the >electric-vehicle requirement. Since mileage is directly connected to a manufacturer's compliance with the ZEV, there's your nexus. After reading this summary (and not having read a word of the actual statutes at issue, by way of a warning to the reader) I'd have to conclude that the auto-makers have a pretty good case. Of course, the provisions tying mileage to compliance with the ZEV may be severable, allowing the law to be enforced in a limited way, depending on the precise wording of the statute, so even if the state loses, it may not be a total loss. And, of course, there are plenty of ways to re-write the statute that would not cause a tie-in with vehicle mileage, if that becomes politically feasible within the state. -- -Adam Kuehn
