NEWTON CENTRE, Mass., June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Attorney Matt Pawa issued the following statement today:
"Today, a federal district court in California entered an opinion and order denying the automobile manufacturers' latest attempts to invalidate the California Pavley law that regulates greenhouse gas emissions from cars.
"In short, the car companies argued that they will need a lot of lead time if and when California receives its EPA waiver in order to come into compliance with the new emissions rules and thus California should be enjoined from enforcing its law for a period of time even after EPA grants a waiver. The court has basically said to the companies that it was your decision to assume that the Pavley law would never come into effect either by an EPA waiver denial or a victory in the lawsuit and if your risk did not pay off, that is your risk.
"FYI: Both John McCain and Barack Obama are on record as saying they support California's waiver request. So, by early next year California should have a waiver in hand. The California court will now be entering final judgment in short order."
The opinion and order are available online at www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/pavleyopinion.pdf.
Attorney Matt Pawa represented Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense in the Pavley case. He also worked with the same environmental groups in the case of Green Mountain PlymouthDodgeJeep v. Crombie in Vermont.