California Sues 6 Auto Firms Over Emissions

California, the largest U.S. state in terms of population, has combated the automotive industry over new global warming regulations for years. The state on Wednesday announced that it was suing six major US and Japanese automakers for their alleged contribution to global warming.

The lawsuit, filed by the State's Attorney-General, Bill Lockyer in the US district court in Oakland, holds the automakers accountable for the effects of global warming in the state, caused by the greenhouse gases emission produced by their vehicles.

After filing the suit, the first such legal fight in the US, on Tuesday, Lockyer said, "Global warming is causing significant harm to California's environment, economy, agriculture and public health. The impacts are already costing millions of dollars, and the price tag is increasing."

Furthermore, emphasizing on the effects of global warming which include beach erosion, a diminishment in the snow pack on which California relies for much of its water, and raised risk of wildfires, the attorney general held auto emissions responsible for adding more in it.

Clarifying the point to initiate such legal offensive, he said, "Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the federal government and automakers have refused to act. It is time to hold these companies responsible for their contribution to this crisis."

The companies named in the lawsuit are the Chrysler Motors Corporation, an arm of DaimlerChrysler based in Germany; General Motors Corporation; Ford Motor Company; and the North American subsidiaries of Japanese carmakers Honda Motor, Nissan Motor and Toyota Motor.

The state in its lawsuit said, that it was seeking millions of dollars in damages from these automakers. The lawsuit accuses carmakers for creating a public nuisance, by building millions of vehicles that collectively discharge 289 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

The accused automakers declined to comment on the issue directly, and referred the media to The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing automakers. The Alliance, however, labeled the accusations a “nuisance suit” and suggested that it marked an attempt to involve the courts in political decision-making.

“Automakers are already building cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles,” Washington based Alliance said in a statement. “Today’s autos are 99% cleaner than a generation ago, and every model of auto is now available with some type of fuel-efficient technology.”

On contrary, Mr. Lockyer argued that the vehicles of the six companies are answerable for a fifth of the carbon dioxide emissions countrywide and nearly a third of the emissions in California, which has more vehicles than any other state. California has more than 35 million people and nearly 32 million registered vehicles.

Meanwhile, Republican actor-turned-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said, he will ink greenhouse gas-reducing legislation making California the first US state to commit to adhering to the Kyoto Protocol, which sets out measures for tackling greenhouse gas pollution.