When It Comes to Limiting Emissions Targets, Automakers Lose Again

Why do the Big Three in Detroit need $25 billion? To pay their legal fees.

Several automakers asked the Federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island to block the state’s plans to restrict carbon dioxide emissions, according to the Green Inc. blog at the New York Times. The law is similar to one passed in California. Automakers, however, have lost cases in Vermont and California already, and Judge Ernest Torres said that that’s enough.

“It is difficult to see what interest the public has in permitting the plaintiffs another bite of the apple in challenging regulations limiting the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,â€? wrote Judge Torres, according to Green Inc. Further litigation would open lead to “costly and vexatious multiple lawsuits, the waste of judicial resources and the risk of inconsistent decisions,â€? he added.

That leaves 47 states to go. Have no doubt they will try wherever they can.

Someday I’d like to see GM CEO’s Rick Waggoner’s to-do list. Go to dry cleaner. Ask for $25 billion. Complain about unions. Buy tickets to school play. Make sure office is 15 percent bigger than those of senior vice presidents’.

Right now, California’s emission standards are the same as the federal governments because of rulings by the EPA. That could change with a new presidential administration.