Sometimes the law works; or - Another positive post about Arnie?

This week, here in the glorious Empire State, NY, governor Eliot Spitzer initiated regulations designed to meet agreements made with 10 other Eastern states to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

As most know, carbon emissions from automobiles contribute only about 12% of the Carbon emissions nationwide. The rest come from a variety of sources.

Here in NY, the auto # is higher, about 25%, but about 25% also come from power stations. That is the target of this recent regulation.

I say kudos to Spitzer and the rest of the governors (of course, the agreement was crafted by his predecessor, George Pataki, who, despite the lefts passionate hatred of him, was very good to the NY environment.)

So what about Governor Schwarzenegger? Well, this week he is going to file a lawsuit against the EPA? Why? In the past, California has led the nation in emissions requirements for automobiles. In order to pass requirements that exceed the EPA's a state needs to have a waiver granted.

For whatever reason, the EPA has refused to grant the most recent waiver. Rather than roll over, Schwarzenegger has said he will sue the EPA to force them to grant the waiver as the Supreme Court has already declared the EPA the purveyor of emissions regulation in the country.

The California emissions requirements are, of course, far more stringent than those nationally.

In this particular case, even better, is the fact that at least 22 states have announced that they will follow California's legislation in this regard.

Currently California requires all new cars to be what are known as LEV (low emission vehicles) with a large percentage of a fleet to also be ULEV and ZEV (Ultra Low and Zero, emissions vehicles).

Finally, as another kudo, NYC's health commissioner has been pushing to require chain restaurants to post calorie and content information about their food. A NY court ruled some time ago that the requirements were too strict with regard to what restaurants would have to do this. So, to satisfy the courts order, the commissioner has altered the legislation to include principally the large chain restaurants.

This legislation should get court review this week, and if it goes as expected be in place shortly thereafter. Good news for those who live in Mickey D's!!