Remember that tiff last week between Jean Charest and Jim Prentice, after the federal environment minister dared to criticize Quebec for going it alone on tailpipe emission standards?
In today’s Journal de Quebec — under the headline “Quebec is giving preferential treatment to obtain SUV’s,” Michel Hébert reports:
“Since January 14, Quebec has been applying tailpipe emission standards in regard to SUV’s that are tougher than California’s.
A few days after the regulations came into effect, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Volkswagen and Nissan met with officials of the environment ministry and further meetings are planned.
In a letter sent to the ministry, the manufacturers say they are “delighted with your offer to review ways” of quickly adjusting the major elements of Quebec’s regulations that differ from “those of California.”
Without knowing it, some 2010 models were not available in Quebec but were sold in Ontario. So, after GM refused to sell large 4 WD vehicles to Hydro Quebec because of the Quebec standards, a quiet agreement was made to exempt the Yukon, Escalade and Savana models from the regulations.
Quebec intended to align its regulations with California’s, but the Schwarzenegger administration accepted the more flexible regulations that apply across the United States.”
