January 24, 2008

            WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General Mike Cox, in testimony before the U. S. Senate Committee on the Environment & Public Works, today called for a comprehensive national solution to the global problem of greenhouse gas emissions, rather than a one-state or multi-state solution.

            Cox also took issue with efforts to single out the auto industry in connection with greenhouse gas emissions.

            "Global climate change is a national and international issue which cannot be solved by individual states nor can it be addressed by focusing on only a single sector - automobiles - that by conservative estimates produce less than a third of U.S. greenhouse emissions and 7% of worldwide emissions," Cox said.

            The congressional hearing specifically dealt with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) announced intent to deny California's request for a waiver to impose a regulation dealing with greenhouse gas emissions. That waiver would establish greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, light trucks, crossovers, and sports utility vehicles which would have the effect of raising fuel economy standards and, at the same time, raising prices on automobiles.

            According to Cox, granting the California waiver "is not without a cost to the nation and particularly to Michigan. Over the past six years, Michigan's unemployment has doubled from 3.8% in 2001 to 7.6% in 2007, far above the national average. If the California regulation was to take effect, the nation's auto companies could suffer a net job loss ranging from 60,000 to 100,000 jobs. Since Michigan has 22% of the nation's auto manufacturing jobs, our State's burden would be staggering."

            Rather than having one state set the auto emissions standards for America as a whole, Cox testified that the United States Congress should make that determination.

            "Congress recently debated the issue of global climate change when it passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which raises mileage standards to 35 MPG by 2020.  While the ink is barely dry on the new legislation, California's waiver request would de facto amend it - and bypass the constitutional prerogatives of Congress - by promulgating a new regulation that necessarily depends on changing corporate average fuel economy standards," Cox said.

            "Congress is the national policy-making body in our system of government. Instead of criticizing EPA's decision, this body should make the national policy choices it is authorized and entrusted to make," concluded Cox.

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