For the record: Will California's clean-car law take effect?

Fran Pavley may not appear on magazine covers or at a U.N. podium, but she can claim action-heroine status on fighting global warming. The former middle-school teacher served as a Democratic assemblywoman representing Agoura Hills. The first bill she introduced: Assembly Bill 1493 to reduce global warming emissions from passenger vehicles. Her final bill: Assembly Bill 32 requiring California to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.

This month a federal judge ruled in Vermont that states can indeed regulate CO2 emissions from autos, rejecting automakers' argument that federal law preempts state rules. Meanwhile, California has been waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether to grant a waiver allowing AB 1493's standards to take effect.

Last week came news that the U.S. transportation secretary had lobbied lawmakers behind the scenes to pressure the EPA to deny the waiver.

The Bee asked Pavley about the developments. Following are excerpts of her comments:

State's role

The whole world is watching what California is doing on the clean-car law but also AB 32. We've got to get this right. We're way past the tipping point in California -- it's not a choice between the environment and the economy. Business leaders, progressive ones worried about the 21st century and the impact of not doing anything -- they're on board.

Why the federal government continues to drag its feet is amazing to me. We see this as a wonderful business opportunity.

The lobbying revelation

It's not a surprise, because the inference has always been and the rumors have always been that there is ongoing interference by the White House to delay or deny California's waiver. And pressure on EPA officials -- some who have told me off the record what's going on and now with Congressman (Henry) Waxman's investigative hearings showing that e-mails and phone calls were made by the Department of Transportation trying to get representatives as well as state governors to send in letters to beat the deadline.

A lot is riding on this. California has actually met the criteria for receiving a waiver. We have had 53 applications in front of the EPA for a waiver to implement more stringent air emissions standards than the federal government. None have been denied. This would be the first.

A waiver approval

It (would) mean in the future, somewhere between 2009 and 2016, cleaner, more efficient cars will be produced, and that can be done using a variety of available, off-the-shelf technologies.

With the 14 other states that have indicated they will be adopting this, that's over 40 percent of all the automobiles sold in the United States. ...We've got other states on board. If you look at it historically, these same automobile manufacturers fought tooth and nail to stop implementation of California laws that required unleaded gas and catalytic converters -- the sky was always falling. To quote Gov. Gray Davis, who signed the clean-car bill in 2002: "The sky's not falling; it's only getting cleaner." Sometimes I wish I had a speechwriter.