WASHINGTON -- Public hearings commence this week on the nation's first greenhouse gas pollution standards. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) officials will hear public testimony on proposed new historic fuel economy benchmarks and national greenhouse gas emissions limits for passenger vehicles today, Oct. 21 in Detroit, and also on Oct. 23 in New York City and Oct. 27th in Los Angeles.

Among those planning to speak at the hearings is Michael Stanton, president and CEO of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers. Stanton will serve as a witness on behalf of AIAM on Oct. 27 in Los Angeles.

The national proposal responds to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court mandate and will carry out President Obama's landmark May 19th accord with major automakers, the Governor of California, the United Auto Workers Union and environmentalists. Passenger cars and light-trucks emit nearly 20 percent of the nation's greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons. In April, EPA provisionally found that these four contaminants and two other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.

The proposed standards from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation would apply to new model year 2012 to 2016 vehicles.

For more information on the public hearings, visit: www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regulations.htm.