ENVIRONMENT Lawsuits on auto emissions settled

Lawsuits challenged a requirement that 10 percent of cars be pollution-free.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Three automakers have settled their lawsuits challenging the nation's toughest auto emissions standards, improving the chances that California's rewritten regulations forcing the auto industry to build cleaner cars could take effect, state officials said.
Under terms of the deal, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Isuzu will not challenge new regulations for creating low-polluting and nonpolluting cars. In turn, the state will drop its appeals of lawsuits brought by automakers, said Jerry Martin, an Air Resources Board spokesman.
The settlement, scheduled to be announced today, strengthens the possibility that automakers will be forced to build cleaner cars rather than continue fighting to weaken the emissions rules.
"We get to start getting the cars on the road so California breathers can get what they expect from us, cleaner air," Martin said.
A GM spokesman in California who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the settlement and said it depends on the air board adopting the rules as they now stand. The board changed its emissions regulations in April, but they are still in a public comment period and subject to change.
Legal maneuvering
The automakers and car dealers in the San Joaquin Valley successfully challenged California's landmark 1990 requirement that 10 percent of cars sold in the state this year -- about 100,000 vehicles -- be nonpolluting.
They charged that the state overstepped its authority and was setting fuel efficiency policy that can only be set by the federal government.
A federal judge in Fresno agreed in June last year and ordered the state to put the regulations on hold. Automakers also won a round in state court.
The air board appealed the federal ruling, claiming they enacted sound air pollution control policy and that any improved mileage was a benefit to drivers. Environmentalists joined state regulators in the appeal, while the Bush administration sided with automakers.
California developed the pollution-free mandate to respond to the nation's worst air pollution -- a result of 25 million cars and a hot, smog-producing climate. The policy has been continuously eroded as automakers resisted building battery-powered electric cars, which were the only available technology and helped inspire the rule.
Even as it appealed, the air board surrendered to pressure from automakers and retooled the rule in April to reflect significant improvements in tailpipe emissions and the prospect of the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.
The new regulations call for hundreds of thousands of cleaner gas-burning vehicles, tens of thousands of gas-electric hybrids and 250 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the next five years.