California could finally get tougher car emissions standards soon. Yesterday, Obama ordered the U.S. EPA to reconsider California’s request to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for vehicles.

This effort’s been a long time coming, since Cali actually passed this law to reduce emissions back in 2002! The auto industry then delayed the law by filing a bunch of lawsuits. Once those went away, Cali needed a waiver from the U.S. EPA — and the agency, under the Bush administration, proceeded to sit on its ass and delay the process for more than 16 months.

Finally, in December 2007, the EPA denied Cali’s waiver — then refused to divulge info about how the agency came to the decision, invoking executive privilege. After a fight, Sen. Barbara Boxer’s people got a look at EPA’s documents — to find that despite the waiver refusal, EPA officials had said California had “compelling and extraordinary conditions” to set its own greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. The whole fiasco dragged out, with one unhappy EPA employee actually quitting his job — to start working for the Obama campaign.

Now, Obama’s prez and we’re finally getting some real action on the issue.

What happens now? According to the LA Times, the EPA’ll likely take several months to decide whether or not to reverse the Bush administration’s waiver denial. If the waiver denial’s reversed, new laws that require more fuel efficient cars will go into effect starting with the 2011 model year vehicles. In the end, the rules would “effectively require vehicles to reach as much as 42 mpg by 2020,” according to Sarah van Schagen at Grist.

Since 13 other states also plan to adopt Cali’s tougher standards, the EPA’s decision will directly affect more than just California — and indirectly affect the other 36 states who’ll also get to pick from the more fuel-efficient vehicles that are developed because of the tougher standards.

Photo by Simone Ramella

Update, 5/19/09: Cali gets its tougher car emissions standards applied to all 50 states

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