Scourge of the Gas Guzzlers

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Fran Pavley, 57, a former middle school history teacher, doesn't seem like the sort to attract death threats. But as a freshman in the California Assembly she introduced a bill that would set strict limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from the state's cars and trucks—a measure that triggered a furious counter-attack. Whipped up by conservative talk shows and a $5 million ad campaign funded by the auto industry, angry calls flooded the legislature by the thousands. At one point, a menacing parade of SUVs circled the State Capitol and a man threatened to stalk Pavley with a baseball bat. The highway patrol provided her a bodyguard, but Pavley was unfazed. "I didn’t lose any sleep over it. It was the right thing to do."

She's not the only one who feels that way. Nine other states, from New York to Oregon, have adopted Pavley's landmark legislation to curb their own emissions. The California law, which took effect in January, gives automakers until the 2009 model year to begin phasing in technology to cut greenhouse gases—CO2 and other tailpipe pollutants that have never before been regulated in the U.S. By 2016, cars and light trucks must reduce their emission of these gases by 30%. Officials from Germany to Japan have flocked to California to study the new rules.

But car companies are suing to reverse them, arguing that the law amounts to a restriction of fuel economy—a federal prerogative. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, rather than supporting the states' efforts, has indicated it may try to block them, a move that strikes Pavley as particularly wrong-headed. "This is off-the-shelf technology that automakers are already using in Europe," she says. Meanwhile, she’s already moved on to a new front: her latest bill would require power plants, oil refineries and factories to measure, and eventually cap, their greenhouse-gas emissions.