The EPA's approval gives the Air Resources Board the green light to continue with its Clean Cars Program. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80-percent of 1990 levels by 2050.
Roland Hwang with the Natural Resources Defense Council says California's efforts have started to yield results -with the help of automakers, "They sent their lobbyists and lawyers home, put their engineers to work and typically what we find out is: they can meet our standards at a much lower cost and much earlier than we had predicted. Time and time again, we've seen this."
On Wednesday Honda began production of its Accord Plug-in Hybrid. It is the first 2014 model car to meet the Air Resources Board's new smog-emission standards.
CARB says light duty vehicle emissions must be cut
by one-third within the next twelve years