Are the automakers bluffing when they say they can't hit California's new emissions targets? If so, the Union of Concerned Scientists is calling their bluff. Yesterday the UCS unveiled a minivan design that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40 percent while saving consumers money and keeping safety and performance intact.

The UCS Vanguard — which is not a hybrid — uses off-the-shelf technologies, including the engine, transmission, and fueling systems. Besides saving the litigious manufacturers millions in R&D costs, it enables them to drop their legal challenge to California's emissions standards and get back to work making cars that people can drive without despoiling the planet. Good news for them ... right?

Assuming the automakers don't manage to derail the new standard — not necessarily a safe assumption — California will require a 34 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for cars and light trucks within the next 10 years; for larger trucks and SUVs, the cut is 25 percent. The California standard has already been adopted by ten other states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — and Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Texas are on their way there.

As Spencer Quong, the senior UCS vehicles engineer and former automaker consultant who designed the Vanguard, observed: "Meeting state laws for fighting global warming should be no sweat for the automakers. They already have the solution to pollution right under the hoods of their own cars and trucks."

I'll be speaking with Quong later on and sharing what I find out with you here, so if you like what UCS is doing — or if you don't — watch this space.

[Source: Union of Concerned Scientists via Green Car Congress]