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Carmakers Want to Exclude Public From Tailpipe Standards Trial

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 16, 2007

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The new California automobile emission rules are headed to federal court in Vermont, where automakers want a large part of the proceedings closed to the public.

The auto industry is questioning whether Vermont can impose the new California standards on vehicle tailpipe emissions.

Now the automakers say they need to protect trade secrets, including sales forecasts and engineering data and that, therefore, the public ought to be excluded from some of the court proceedings.

The stakes are enormous for automakers. Nine states have adopted the California rules that require passenger cars to meet new tailpipe standards that would cut emissions up to 40 percent by 2016. Meeting the requirement would mean the auto industry would have to improve fuel economy to average approximately 40 miles per gallon for passenger cars.

U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions has scheduled a hearing to exclude the public after the Burlington, Vermont, Free Press objected to the automakers' request.

The industry would like to bar the public from hearing some testimony as well as keep almost 150 court exhibits private.

As part of the proposal to limit access, the auto industry offered to release edited daily transcripts of testimony that exclude the most confidential information.

Each automaker, including General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. has reviewed or turned over thousands of pages of sensitive documents. Many of the documents contain detailed engineering and financial assessments involved with fuel economy changes and technologies in specific vehicle models.

The automakers are claiming the information is proprietary and they ought to be allowed to keep it away from public view.

The federal court proceeding in Vermont is a result of the 2002 California decision to order that automakers meet strict tailpipe emissions limits beginning in 2009.

The automakers contend the California order is unreasonably expensive and will lead to declining vehicle sales and the closure of some automobile dealerships.

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