Battle over car exhaust

Sacramento

Automakers will have to build cars that cough out less carbon dioxide if they want to do business in California. Gov. Gray Davis this week signed a law mandating reduced automobile emissions by 2009. Davis said other states should also tighten fuel-efficiency standards to clear the air of greenhouse gases, which many scientists believe trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the earth. Auto-industry spokesmen called the measure a “driving tax” that would do little to help the environment, as the link between pollution and climate change is still a subject of debate. Eron Shosteck, an Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers spokesman, said the law would effectively ban SUVs, and leave Californians “driving around in golf carts.”

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