SALEM — An attorney representing the car industry and GOP lawmakers urged a judge Monday to block a move by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Oregon environmental officials to adopt California’s tough new vehicle emission standards to reduce greenhouse gases.

In arguments in Marion County Circuit Court, attorney Carl Neil said Kulongoski is ignoring the wishes of the Legislature by having the state Department of Environmental Quality continue to work on adopting the California standards by the end of the year.

“Money is being spent right now for adoption of rules clearly prohibited” by the Legislature, Neil said.

But an assistant attorney general said Kulongoski acted within his authority when he used a procedure known as a line-item veto to clear the way for the tougher tailpipe standards.

“It never should have been there in the first place,” Charles Fletcher said of a provision that lawmakers tucked into an environmental budget bill to bar the administration from spending money to adopt California’s strict car emissions standards.

It was Kulongoski’s veto of that provision that touched off the lawsuit by Republican Senate Leader Ted Ferrioli, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and more than a dozen car dealers.

Circuit Judge Mary James, who heard Monday’s arguments, didn’t indicate when she would rule in the case.

But the clock is ticking in the controversy, since the governor’s office now is working with state emissions regulators on drawing up the new standards that will be considered for adoption Dec. 22 by the state Environmental Quality Commission.

“We are moving forward on this,” said Kulongoski spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor.

The new standards would take effect in the 2009 model year and they would apply only to new cars.

State environmental officials estimate that the California rules would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cars and light-duty trucks 18 percent by 2020.

Car industry representatives have said the new California standards won’t make cars that much cleaner but could add as much as $3,000 to the cost of a new vehicle.

The lawsuit filed by the auto industry and the Republicans contends that the governor can use his authority to delete a single spending program from appropriations bills but not a “legislative condition” set on a particular program.

However, the state’s lawyers argue that the Oregon constitution gives the governor the authority to line-item veto a “single item” from a budget bill, but doesn’t specifically limit what kind of item that can be.