Re-evaluating California's greenhouse gas emission law: Is it rational under the current economic situation

In 2002, California acknowledged the scientific consensus that global warming is a serious threat to the welfare of California's citizenry and environment. This concern resulted in the California State Assembly Bill 1493 (Pavely) which was signed into law that year. AB 1493 directs the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt regulations which achieve the "maximum feasible and cost-effective" reduction of GHG emissions from motor vehicles. The bill also required CARB to set its emissions standards with the goal of reducing not just the environmental impacts, but also the economic impacts of global warming, including impacts on jobs, businesses and California businesses competitiveness with other states.In response to these requirements, CARB implemented the regulation as new vehicle performance standards across the industry and performance beyond these standards would be tradable between classes of vehicles as well as between manufacturers. The new GHG regulations were added to preexisting Low Emission Vehicles (LEV) standards, which have regulated criteria pollutants that relate to air quality and public health since 1994. Based on the economic data available in 2002, CARB finalized regulation implementing AB 1493, adopting a set of maximum greenhouse gas emission levels. Automakers were charged with the design of a mix of vehicles and might take other alternatives to meet the emission standards starting with 2009 year.However, since 2007, an economic recession has taken place in the world, affecting not only the economies of the United States where it began, but also where it has spread to many other countries such as China, Russia and the European Union. This recession has created serious obstacles for the United State's economic growth, for businesses and for the economic and environmental welfare of its citizens. In California specifically, business employees, the automotive and housing industries have suffered the most since the recession began. This economic downturn has made the 2002 data which CARB relied on to support its regulation methodology extremely inaccurate with regard to predicting present economic conditions as well as the size and makeup of the new vehicle fleet. Because of this inaccuracy, implementation of the regulations as they stand now would fall short of achieving the directives of AB 1493. Because of falling sales of new cars, and especially hybrid cars caused by the recession, it has also become very difficult for automakers to meet the requirements of AB 1493 and the CARB regulations while still remaining economically viable companies.This research examines the economic concerns of the automotive industry in meeting the GHG emissions standards set by CARB by examining the validity of these standards under the current economic recession. This work presents full understanding of how these standards were functioned in the 2009-2010fiscal year and whether if these standards were or were not valid for the same fiscal year. However, the findings of this research paper have shown that the proposed GHG emission standard by CARB is valid under the economic recession.