MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -Vermont has become the first of several Northeastern states that are expected to adopt new rules that seek to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses from cars by improving their gas mileage.

Final approval Wednesday by the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Committee means that for the 2009 model year, cars sold in Vermont will need to adhere to strict new rules that seek to reduce emissions from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by increasing fuel efficiency.

Gov. James Douglas said he was pleased with the committee’s action.

“Vermont is a leader in air quality,” he said. The comment came at the end of a news conference in which the governor announced a new effort to sell Vermont as a place to do business.

Vermont’s “quality of life, its clean air and natural beauty” all are advantages the state can use to try to recruit new business.

New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island also have been moving to adopt the new carbon-reduction rules so that they can keep pace with California.

The federal clean air act allows for two sets of rules governing emissions from cars sold in the United States: the California standard and the less-strict federal standard.

When California beefed up its existing rules to take aim at carbon dioxide, the Northeastern states that had followed its previous rules had to choose whether keep pace or fall back to the federal standard. It was widely expected that New York and the New England states minus New Hampshire would adopt the new California standards.

Car makers have sued in California to overturn the new rules.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has argued that changes that will be needed to meet the new emission standards will add about $3,000 to the cost of a car.

Environmentalists counter that the increased costs are more like $1,000 per car, an amount easily offset by lower fuel costs. They also note that a number of car models on the road today can meet the new standards already.

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