Clean Cars

For nearly ten years, the Attorney General, together with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), has fought hard to ensure that California is able to enforce its own "clean car" standards and that the federal government does its job to require increased fuel efficiency.

Cleaner cars and fuels give consumers more options in the marketplace and at the pump, help to reduce smog and its related health impacts, and cut down on greenhouse gas pollution that leads to climate change.

The Attorney General's "clean car" work includes fighting for better federal fuel efficiency standards and defending California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for motor vehicle emissions AB 1493, commonly known as the "Pavley" law.

The Attorney General is also defending against challenges to regulations adopted by CARB under California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act , commonly called AB 32. The Attorney General currently is defending against a challenge to the State’s innovative Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) brought by trade associations representing oil and ethanol producers and oil refiners. At the end of last year, a federal trial court issued an order blocking enforcement of the LCFS. On April 23, 2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted California’s motion for a stay of the trial court’s order, which means that the LCFS will continue to be enforced as the litigation continues.