PORTLAND - The state adopted tougher light truck and car emission rules based on California standards Thursday to reduce greenhouse gases and make the entire West Coast a more uniform market for automobile manufacturers.

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission unanimously approved rules that Washington state had made contingent on Oregon passage, to take effect with the 2009 model year.

The commission adopted temporary rules last December and made slight modifications after an extensive public comment period that state officials said brought overwhelming support for tougher tailpipe emission standards. The final report to the commission said that nearly 5,200 of the 5,300 public comments received since December were in support of the standards.

“The governor is very pleased,” said Lonn Hoklin, spokesman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who pushed the standards past a political roadblock in the Legislature by using a procedure called a “line-item” veto.

“This is something that has been on his agenda for some time,” Hoklin said. “He feels it's a major step forward in showing how states can fight global warming, which he considers to be the major environmental issue of this age.”

The formal addition of Oregon and Washington officially boosts the number of states with stricter emission standards to 11. Other states are clustered in the Northeast - Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The auto industry, which lost a court battle over the tougher standard, argued it could boost the average price of a new car by about $3,000.

“There is nobody who has said that increasing the standard is not going to increase the cost,” said Darrell Fuller, a lobbyist for the Oregon Automobile Dealers Association.

But Dave Nordberg, a transportation specialist for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said the state estimate on the increased cost was about $1,200 per vehicle. He also noted that car and light truck owners will benefit from significant fuel savings - about $20 to $25 per month with gasoline at $3 per gallon.

Jeremiah Baumann of Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, an environmental organization which supported the stricter rules, noted the automaker study that estimated a higher cost per vehicle also showed a net benefit with gas at that price. He called the permanent adoption of the emission standards “a huge victory for Oregonians who, by a wide majority, want environmental protection and want to help fight global warming.”

Commissioner Judy Uherbelau questioned whether adopting the standards in a state with a relatively small population, compared to California, would make much difference. But Nordberg reminded her that the Oregon standard is also being adopted in Washington state, with about twice the population.