Backing into Cleaner Cars

According to Salon's War Room (Site Pass required), automakers have agreed to a "clean car pledge" with the Canadian government that looks an awful lot like California's greenhouse gas emissions law that the automakers are fighting in court. As Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club note, the automakers themselves have created an interesting dilemma here, as they

unilaterally disarm from their long-standing position that they cannot make clean cars. In fact, they have sued to overturn the California Clean Car Law which is the basis for Canada's action. The auto companies are now in the awkward position of telling a judge that they cannot make the same cars in California that they will make in Canada.

Automakers have long claimed they cannot cut global warming emissions -- and won't. Now they are promising Canada that they will. The automakers have now lost their last excuse for inaction. It is time for the automakers to bring the benefits of clean cars to Americans, and do in the U.S. what they have promised to do abroad.

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