Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano slapped down efforts by lawmakers to shelve her new vehicle emission standards, calling their legislation “micromanagement.”

The governor on Thursday vetoed HB 2017, which would have barred the state Department of Environmental Quality from enacting any regulations curbing “greenhouse gas” emissions.

Most immediately that would have killed new rules just approved by the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council which impose new carbon dioxide emission standards on new cars and truck sold in Arizona beginning in 2011. The measure said no regulations limiting greenhouse gases can be enacted or enforced without first getting legislative approval.

The governor said existing law already gives DEQ full authority to set emission standards for vehicles — including setting limits on gases not already regulated like carbon dioxide which has been linked to global warming.

Thursday’s veto may not end the battle.

Sen. Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, who crafted the language in the legislation, said one possibility would be attaching its provision to other environmental legislation. He said that means if she wants the provisions in that other bill she also will have to accept the restrictions on greenhouse gas regulations.

The other alternative, Flake said, would be to sue: He believes state environmental laws do not give DEQ the authority to regulate carbon dioxide.

Napolitano directed DEQ in 2006 to adopt the same greenhouse gas emission standards already approved by the California Air Resources Board. The governor said her agency followed all the required legal procedures.

Those rules do not ban the sale of specific vehicles but instead require each manufacturer to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions of all the cars and trucks sold in Arizona.

The eventual goal is 37 percent by 2016. Some vehicles still could pollute more as long as sufficient numbers of cars and trucks that exceed the reduction also are sold.

Cost estimates range from $6,000 to $1,100 per vehicle to implement the rules.

An economic expert hired by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has pegged the additional cost of the rules when fully implemented at about $6,000. But DEQ, relying on estimates from California, says prices will go up less than $1,100, an amount the agency says will be more than offset over the life of the vehicle because of greater fuel efficiency.

The rule also mandates that 11 percent of each manufacturer’s vehicles sold in Arizona beginning in 2011 have no emissions at all, increasing to 16 percent by 2018.

Napolitano said DEQ will monitor implementing the rules so if problems develop they can be altered. “These adjustments will be better dealt with administratively as well,” she wrote in her veto message.

The legislation would also have put a halt to separate efforts by DEQ to enact restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions by industrial sources, including the several coal-fired power plants in the state.

But the governor said those rules still are being formulated in cooperation with six other states and three Canadian provinces. And she said any recommendations will be based on public input, including from the “stakeholders” in the affected industries.

“Thus it is premature to summarily require any programs related to greenhouse gases receive special legislative approval, in addition to all the other procedures that will be utilized,” Napolitano wrote.