The US state of California has been granted a waiver request enabling it to enforce its own greenhouse gas emissions standard for new cars starting with the current model year.

The request has been granted by the US Environmental Agency (EPA) after it found that California’s car manufacturers are already in compliance with the MY2009 Pavley requirement and are already tracking to compliance for 2010.

In granting the waiver, the EPA found that California continues to have a need for its motor vehicle emissions programme, including the greenhouse gas standards and also found that the programme meets legal requirements regarding the protectiveness of public health and welfare.

The news comes on the back of President Barack Obama’s decision to announce a national policy of two harmonised standards – one for increasing fuel economy and the second for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new standards will cover the model years 2012-2016 and will require an average fuel economy standard of 35.5mpg in 2016 (39mpg for cars, 30mpg for trucks) – approximately 250g/CO2 per mile.

California has committed to allowing its automakers that show compliance with the national programme to be deemed in compliance with state requirements – so the national standard will effectively provide an alternative compliance path to the Pavley standards from 2012-2016. The end point of the two standards in 2016 is roughly the same – the MY2016 new vehicle fleet is approximately 243g/CO2 per mile, around 36.6mpg.