Date published: 2006/09/21
The BBC says:
The state of California is suing six carmakers for costs associated with their cars' greenhouse gas emissions.
The suit names General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan.
California is asking for "monetary compensation" for the damage which it says their emissions are doing to health, economy and environment.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), a pan-industry body, called it a "nuisance" suit and suggested it may be dismissed
...
State lawyers want any judgement for damages to be ongoing, so that manufacturers will be liable every year.
...
The lawsuit, lodged on behalf of the Californian people by state attorney-general Bill Lockyer, alleges that emissions from cars made by the firms in question account for 30% of all carbon dioxide emissions in California.The complaint alleges that the firms' activities have harmed the state's environmental health, with California having to spend million of dollars responding to environmental threats such as coastal erosion.
Mr Lockyer said he had not put a figure of the level of damages he was seeking but that it was likely to run into "hundreds of millions of dollars".
Politicians taking the piss (as usual). No mention is made of the fact that cars make a huge contribution (probably billions of dollars per year) to the California economy (e.g. allowing people to get to work and to shop). And if cars are so evil then California should just ban them. Period. Or put a whacking great tax on gasoline (petrol). But of course these dreadful politicians don't want to do that, since that would cost California residents some money and be inconvenient. What they are trying to do instead is to extort money from the people of the rest of the world (since that is where this money would mostly eventually have to come from, when you follow the money trail). This is a combination of cynical grandstanding and attempted racketeering.
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