SACRAMENTO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown is starting to pile up the lawsuit victories in advance of his biggest legal showdown with the federal EPA over greenhouse-gas regulation.

Brown announced a victory Wednesday in federal court against the automobile industry. A car-maker had sued the state's right to impose stricter GHG tailpipe emissions laws, a source of on-going dispute between California and the federal EPA.

The federal judge ruled that federal laws do not prevent states enacting such laws. "This court ruling leaves the Bush administration as the last remaining roadblock to California's regulation of tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions," Brown stated in the release.

The win makes up in part for a federal court loss Brown suffered in his GHG-emissions battle with car-makers three months ago, LNL reported. The judge there dismissed a public-nuisance GHG-based suit brought against auto car makers by Brown's predecessor, Bill Lockyer.

Two months later, the Golden State won a suit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over its gasoline-mileage standards for light trucks, LNL also reported. That announcement came shortly after Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sued the EPA to enforce their stricter tailpipe-GHG standards.

Automakers say the decision highlights the need for a uniform national fuel-economy policy, not a state-by-state approach. "A consistent national policy for fuel economy ... cannot be written by a single state or group of states - only by the federal government," stated Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers President Dave McCurdy.