[JURIST] In Friday's environmental law news, John Thwaites, Minister of the Environment for the state of Victoria in Australia, has announced that he will be calling on the national Environment and Heritage Protection Council (EHPC) to adopt a plan that would require large emitters to report their greenhouse gas emissions annually. Currently, emitters have to report the emission of gasses listed on the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) in accordance with a set of regulations adopted by the EHPC. The EHPC had considered adding greenhouse gasses to the NPI last April, but have not yet taken any action. The Australian has more....

In other news, Sri Lanka Environment and Natural Resources Minister A.H.M. Fowzie has announced a plan that that would completely ban the use of vehicles that do not comply with new emissions standards. The New Vehicle Emissions standards are currently set to take effect on January 1, 2006. The Minister's plan to ban noncompliant vehicles will need to be approved by the full Cabinet before taking effect. The UN has background[PDF] on Sri Lanka vehicle emission policies. The Sri Lanka Daily News has more.... The Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) on Thursday approved a plan that would adopt the California Zero Emission Vehicle program. If passed by the Maine legislature this winter, the program would require, starting in 2009, 6 percent of all vehicles sold in Maine to have the newest available emissions control technology (ie. clean-burning gasoline) and an additional 4 percent to have essentially zero emissions, as found in gas-electric hybid vehicles. Critics of the plan point out that it may be difficult to comply with the program in Maine, where trucks make up 60 percent of the vehicles sold each year. The Bangor Daily News has more.