Burning Image's flickr photostream/Creative Commons

Remember when California wanted to set its own emission standards for cars and trucks, and the previous administration’s EPA said no dice? Well, that’s the previous administration, and this is now, and California’s Air Resources Board has voted to enact a law that will reduce gasoline consumption in the state by 25 percent over the next decade. The Los Angeles Times reports on the “complex new rule.”:

The regulation requires producers, refiners and importers of gasoline and diesel to reduce the carbon footprint of their fuel by 10% over the next decade. And it launches the state on an ambitious path toward ratcheting down its overall heat-trapping emissions by 80% by mid-century — a level that some scientists deem necessary to avoid drastic global climate disruption.

While industry people, cattle ranchers (?), Canada (?), and General Wesley Clark (?) opposed the regulation, Governor Schwarzenegger (?) applauded the vote.

It will “not only reduce global warming,” he said, “it will reward innovation, expand consumer choice and encourage the private investment we need to transform our energy infrastructure.”

Good enough for me. Also, Chevron (?) likes this ruling. Go figure. takepart, as always, with Autoblog Green.