California sues EPA over refusal to let state limit greenhouse gases
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting California sues EPA over refusal to let state limit greenhouse gases.
The Environmental Protection Agency “has done nothing at the national level to curb greenhouse gases, and now it has wrongfully and illegally blocked California’s landmark tailpipe emissions standards,” Attorney General Jerry Brown said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit against the EPA. Fifteen other states joined California’s suit.
The EPA said Dec. 19 that it had denied California’s request to implement clean-air standards stricter than federal rules. The federal Clean Air Act allows California, because of its smog problems, to exceed nationwide air-quality rules if the state obtains a waiver from the EPA, which had not denied any of the state’s applications since the law took effect more than 30 years ago.
[EPA Administrator] Johnson’s decision was “shocking in its incoherence and utter failure to provide legal justification for the administrator’s unprecedented action,” Brown said. Citing reports in The Chronicle and other news outlets that Johnson had ignored recommendations from a majority of his legal staff, the attorney general accused the Bush appointee of “doing the bidding of the auto industry.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said federal regulators were “ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming.”
It is my sincere hope that a regime change in the US in 2008 puts an end to much of this nonsense. But I am an optimist. — DS
Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, cars, climate change, emissions reduction
