| Quebec's New Climate Strategy Faces Opposition | 17 February 10 |
 Quebec recently recently enacted the first regulations in Canada to adopt California's strict auto emissions standards. These regulations impose strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles sold in the province. Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice opposes the move, and believes the regulations are too strict to be practical for the province, and are 'counter productive in the North America market place.'The new standards require new light vehicles to produce no more than 127 grams of carbon dioxide by 2016, a decrease of 35%. Auto manufacturers will face a fine of $5000 for every vehicle sold that doesn't meet the new standards, beginning with 2010 models. There is concern Quebec's targets will force consumers to go out of province to buy vehicles due to price increases for vehicles that meet the new Quebec standards. Despite opposition to Quebec's regulations, fifteen US states (40% of the US market) have agreed to meet the same standards. There are also federal plans in Canada for regulations to harmonize Canadian and U.S standards to meet California standards by 2016. View February 1, 2010 Globe and Mail press releaseView February 3, 2010 Global News press release Sources: Canwest News Service, Globe and Mail |
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