It’s not easy being Green

Now that Barack Obama is President and liberal Democrats feel an emboldened sense of political mandate, a test of competing liberal agendas comes to the fore with the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. In one corner we have the United Auto Workers and in the other we have the dreaded environmentalists:

The state of California and the automobile industry are pressing the Obama administration to decide whether states may impose their own limits on autos' greenhouse-gas emissions, an issue that pits President Barack Obama's allies in the labor and environmental movements against one another...

...Gearing up to fight California's request is the National Automobile Dealers Association, which is holding its annual convention this weekend in New Orleans, an event expected to draw 25,000 attendees and feature appearances by former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The group has prepared a report warning that the California law would impose "a costly and unnecessary burden on an industry already reeling" from the worst year of U.S. vehicle sales in more than a decade.

Mr. Obama expressed support during his campaign for California's bid to regulate auto greenhouse-gas emissions, so called because they trap the sun's heat in the earth's atmosphere, thus contributing to global warming. But he has avoided saying publicly how quickly his administration intends to act on the state's request.

In addition to the question of whether to let states regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, Mr. Obama's administration is bound by a 2007 Supreme Court decision to determine whether greenhouse-gas emissions "endanger" public health or welfare, the legal trigger for regulating them under the federal Clean Air Act…

…A decision in favor of the request would clear the way for more than a dozen other states to enforce laws they modeled on California's. But it also would risk antagonizing the United Auto Workers, which has complained that the law unfairly discriminates against companies whose product mix is skewed toward pickup trucks, sport-utility vehicles and minivans -- which guzzle a lot of gas. A spokesman for the union, which helped Mr. Obama clinch Ohio and Michigan in last fall's presidential contest, didn't respond to requests for comment on California's request.

With the economy in a slump, it will be interesting to see on which side of the fence the Obama administration forcefully lands on. Obama won’t be able to straddle the philosophical line with oratory flourish like he did during his campaign for the Presidency. He will have to make a tough decision and he will indubitably step on some very sensitive toes; the sort of toes that walked to the polls to elect him.

Update: Mr. Obama has chosen with the Greens. The American auto industry, already on the ropes, may have been dealt a final blow. Break out the popcorn, this may get interesting.