Climate of Our Future

Climate Crisis Coalition

By Frank Ahrens and Carrie Johnson, The Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2007. “A federal court in California yesterday rejected the Bush administration’s new fuel economy standards for light trucks including SUVs, ruling that the government failed to take into account the effects of carbon emissions and their possible link to global warming. The finding by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco was a victory for environmentalists and several states that had sued over fuel economy standards, which were announced in 2006. It is among several recent court rulings that have urged greater attention to global warming. The court’s ruling rejects mileage standards that were to have gone into effect next year and would have raised required average fuel economy for light trucks from 21.6 miles per gallon to 23.5 by 2010. The light truck category — sport-utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans — makes up 50.2 percent of the U.S. automobile market, with passenger cars accounting for the rest. The court ordered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to come up with new standards ‘as expeditiously as possible’… California joined nine other states, New York City, the District and groups including the Sierra Club and NRDC in the lawsuit against the federal government.” Keep reading.