'Big Auto' Lobbying Fares No Better in CA Than in D.C.

'Big Auto' Lobbying Fares No Better in CA Than in D.C.

By Bill Visnic

Senior representatives from several major automakers comprising the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers met in California yesterday with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, hoping to twist the strong-guy governor's arm about the state's ongoing and uncomfortable pressure on the federal government to allow California to set its own carbon-dioxide emissions standards.

California's proposed standards would require better fuel economy improvements, on a quicker time line, than the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy mandate approved by Congress earlier this year -- and which the auto industry largely resisted. Most automakers would rather not -- to put it mildly -- see California permitted to adopt an even more rigid regulation, so they loaded up the lobbying plane in hopes of doing better in California than they've done in Washington, D.C.

Schwarzenegger, however, appears to have resolutely rebuffed the Alliance and its representatives.

According to Edmunds' Green Car Advisor, the governor's office issued a decidedly blunt statement that, said, in part, "Hiding behind the federal government's proposed CAFE standards won't work, and it won't effectively reduce the pollution that causes global warming. In fact, I believe the federal government should adopt California's model; with 13 other states on board, we are heading in the right direction."

Green Car Advisor reports Schwarzenegger also man-slapped the Alliance by adding, "I made it clear to the automakers that California will not back down in the fight to protect our own environment by regulating pollution that causes global warming. We will continue to press the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant our request for a waiver, and we will use legal remedies if they fail to do so."

California's CO2-based emissions law would require a 30 percent cut in automotive greenhouse gases, meaning new cars and trucks sold in the state would have to average 42 miles per gallon by 2020. The new federal law now requires automakers' fleets to average 35 mpg nationally by 2020 -- although the lion's share of the increase is earmarked to happen by 2016.

The governors of 13 other states have announced their support for the California CO2 proposal; automakers insist that allowing the plan to proceed would create a chaotic patchwork of emissions regulations that would increase the price and complexity of new vehicles.

Auto-industry representatives who attended the meeting with Schwarzenegger included: Troy Clarke, president of General Motors North America and chairman of the Alliance; James Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, USA; James Press, vice chairman and president of Chrysler; Jim O'Donnell, president and chief operating officer, BMW North America; Ziad Ojakli, vice president of government and community relations, Ford Motor Company; David Geanacopoulos, vice president and general counsel, Volkswagen of America; and Dave McCurdy, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance.

Photo by GM
Arnold Schwarzenegger, before becoming California's governor, poses with a Hummer at a time when he had a cozier relationship with the auto industry -- and General Motors specifically. 

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.