I was listening the other day to a couple of American automobile executives complain to the president of the United States about emission regulations and all their other burdens -- high wages, government safety mandates, unfair foreign competition. You know the list.
They said this stuff was killing the industry. "We are in a downhill slide, the likes of which we have never seen in our business," one remarked. The Japanese, he said, "are in the wings ready to eat us up alive."
Then they all started grumbling about Ralph Nader and the consumer movement, and that sounded a little, well, anachronistic. So I checked the tape, and darn if it wasn't from April 1971 and the guy talking was Lee Iacocca, then president of Ford, and the president he was jawboning was Richard M. Nixon, who kindly taped the exchange for posterity.
But that's the thing about the U.S. auto industry: Its technology marches on -- anyone remember push-button transmissions? -- yet its whining and bellyaching never seem to change. This week President Obama signaled that the automakers' tantrums might not count for much in Washington anymore.
He did so by effectively clearing the way for California to impose stringent emission standards on cars and light trucks, over the industry's vehement objections.
Obama ordered the federal Environmental Protection Agency to consider waiving its exclusive authority to set clean-air standards so California can implement regulations that the state Air Resources Board adopted in 2005. The Bush administration blocked the waiver -- the first time California had ever been turned down by the EPA after dozens of requests. Now it's almost certain to be approved.
It's hard to overestimate how momentous an advance in U.S. climate policy this could be. California's standards, which aim to cut tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by more than 40% from this year to 2020, have been a beacon for American environmentalists during a very dark few years. (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, by the way, deserves praise for pressing the Bush administration on the issue.)
Once California gets its waiver, its rules may become the de facto emission standard nationwide: Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia are poised to impose the California standards as soon as they're cleared, and six more states have them under active consideration.
