New York State appears ready to turn the screws on automakers and force lower emissions, higher gas mileage, and increased purchase costs. If so, New York might join California in court in an automaker-initiated lawsuit that says the states need to mind their own business.

The technology exists to do this on small cars, but on bigger vehicles, the debate rages on. But the bigger debate is over who runs the show, the feds or the states. Here's simple background for a complex issue: California wrote clean air rules (think LA Basin smog, circa 1950) before the federal government got off its backside and wrote somewhat weaker laws for the rest of the country, so California has the right to set its own, tougher clean air rules. The other states have the option to follow California practice and some do, notably New York. But the federal government retains control over fuel economy for all 50 states, even though MPG and lower emissions are somewhat related.

California ordered up a 30-percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions (such as carbon dioxide) between 2009 and 2016; New York and eight other states want to follow California's lead. To do so will most likely require a 40-percent increase in fuel economy. Automakers say the emissions-rule-change is really a California/New York-led attempt to force a fuel-economy change that only the feds can legally do. And it will likely have to be resolved in court.

New York State estimates the cost of meeting the emissions standards at $1,000 a vehicle when it's in full swing. If that's correct (the warring factions seldom agree on the cost estimates), the economy of the average passenger car would have to jump from 27.5 mpg to 38.5 mpg, which at $2.50 a gallon would mean break-even after 38,500 miles. States that have adopted the greenhouse gas rules include California, New York, Vermont, Washington (if Oregon does), and Maine; Oregon, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey are close. Pondering the changes are Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, and New Mexico.