Battle over car exhaust

last updated 8 January 2015

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.”