11 Other States Join In Suit

May 14 - KGO - California's Attorney General Jerry Brown is blasting the Bush administration today, over new gas mileage standards that increase by 1.3 tenths per gallon. It's a controversy that's triggered a lawsuit by California, many other states and some environmental groups. The suit is being heard in San Francisco.

California and 11 other states have filed this lawsuit against the Bush administration, it is no accident they filed it in San Francisco. They wanted to argue before the liberal Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and some experts think it's a slam-dunk. They are arguing over the efficiency of your car or SUV - the gas mileage it gets.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved a one mile per gallon increase in fuel efficiency last year, from 22.2 miles to 23.5 miles per gallon. Attorney General Jerry Brown calls the increase pathetic and illegal. He and the other plaintiffs believe the technology is there to make cars more efficient, but they accuse the government of protecting other interests and not the environment.

Jerry Brown, CA Attorney General: "They may actually increase the gas consumption and encourage gas guzzlers in order to protect certain companies. This bill, I don't think Karl Rove could have done a better job. It has the hand of lobbying, not the might of science."

Attorneys for the U.S. government did not hold a big press conference on the steps of the court house like Jerry Brown did. We will have to wait until their arguments are heard in court before we can hear firsthand. In their brief, which is 150 pages long, they say that the Congress and the courts have left no doubt that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is uniquely qualified to set its own regulations and that there analysis is correct. Opponents have also said that any kind of regulation would hurt the automobile industry.

PRI's JoshTreviño comments are included in the ABC news segment titled "Jerry Brown To Sue Over Fuel Efficiency ..."