EPA targets car emissions

New regulations could follow White House statement that tailpipe fumes are health threat

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington -- The Obama administration's decision Friday to declare greenhouse gases from vehicle tailpipes a threat to human health has ramped up the pressure on Congress to tackle climate change legislation.

The "endangerment finding" by the Environmental Protection Agency had been expected for weeks, and it's a relatively small bureaucratic but symbolically important step in what has been a decade-long battle over the regulation of emissions.

It clears the way for potentially sweeping rules -- either by Congress or through regulation. Lawmakers on both sides of the climate change debate said pressure is on Congress to pass its own rules -- a move most Republicans, and Democrats including Michigan's two senators, have questioned.

"The decision is a game-changer," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who chairs a special House committee on climate change.

"It is now a choice between regulation and legislation. EPA will have to act if Congress does not act."

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House officials used the announcement to repeat calls for climate change legislation that would weave together the policy strands that threaten to entangle carmakers, including federal fuel economy standards and the possibility of state regulation of emissions.

Tailpipe emissions account for about 24 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The auto industry, which has long fought against EPA regulation of auto emissions, was accommodating in its reaction.

"In the end, we all share the same goal," said Dave McCurdy, the head of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. He said the industry is working to increase fuel efficiency and curb emissions.

But Friday's decision is the latest step by the Obama administration toward rules that the industry has long claimed would impose massive new costs and force it to sell cars that consumers don't want.

EPA is widely expected to rule soon in favor of a request by California and 13 other states that want to reduce tailpipe emissions by 30 percent by 2016. And Obama is pushing for a nationwide system of emission caps and permits that could be traded among companies, a system that, while slowing climate change, could bring enormous change not only to Michigan's auto industry, but also to its coal-dependent electric utilities.

"Because the Great Lakes region is so heavily dependent on coal, this would hit here the hardest," said Jeff Holyfield, a spokesman for Jackson-based Consumers Energy.

Friday's decision doesn't take effect until the end of a 60-day public comment period.

"This should allow Michigan companies that put this country on wheels to lead the next step in creating vehicles of the future," said David Gard of the Michigan Environmental Council. "It gives them the certainty they need to make big investments in retooling and designing cleaner-burning vehicles."

Detroit News Staff Writer Jim Lynch contributed to this report