* Admin Takes Look At CA Greenhouse Rules - Lockyer to defend states rules

[Kadie]

Mar 29, 2006 3:56 pm US/Pacific

Government Takes Look At CA Greenhouse Rules

(AP) LOS ANGELES Federal officials said Wednesday that new national mileage standards would pre-empt state rules on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, a move that takes aim at California's first-in-the-nation limits on such pollution.

State air regulators voted unanimously in September 2004 to approve rules that would cut exhaust from California's cars and light trucks by 25 percent and from larger trucks and sport utility vehicles by 18 percent.

The Bush administration said Tuesday that such regulations were "expressly pre-empted" by the new federal standards.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer vowed to defend the state rules, setting the stage for a legal battle over the California's ambitious clean air plan.

He said the federal government's claim that its regulations trump the state law was "nothing more than another gift to the auto industry from the Bush administration."

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http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_088185726.html