EPA Denies California Request to Reduce Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today stunned the environmental community and state officials nationwide by denying California’s request for a waiver under the Clean Air Act, which would have enabled California and 17 other states to impose stricter-than-federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.

The decision was announced just days after a federal court upheld the California law and the state’s right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. This is the first time the EPA has ever denied a request for a Clean Air Act waiver, and California officials are already preparing a lawsuit to fight the decision.

California Prepares to Sue Over EPA Decision
"It is completely absurd to assert that California does not have a compelling need to fight global warming by curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cars," said California Attorney General Jerry Brown.

According to Brown, California has 32 million registered vehicles, twice as many as any other state, and cars generate 20 percent of all human-caused carbon dioxide emissions in the United States and at least 30 percent of such emissions in California.”

"There is absolutely no legal justification for the Bush administration to deny this request,” Brown said. “Governor Schwarzenegger and I are preparing to sue at the earliest possible moment."

EPA Claims State Laws are Unnecessary
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said he rejected California’s request for a waiver because the energy bill signed into law by President Bush today provides “a national solution” that is better than a “confusing patchwork of state rules to reduce America’s climate footprint from vehicles.”

A statement released by the EPA explained: "California’s current waiver request is distinct from all prior requests. Previous waiver petitions covered pollutants that predominantly impacted local and regional air quality. Greenhouse gases are fundamentally global in nature, which is unlike the other air pollutants covered by prior California waivers requests. These gases contribute to the challenge of global climate change affecting every state in the union. Therefore, according to the criteria in section 209 of the Clean Air Act, EPA did not find that separate California standards are needed to 'meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.'"

Johnson’s rationale doesn’t really hold up, however, for three key reasons:

1. the new energy law does not regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions; it only requires automakers to meet a new fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020;
2. the California Clean Cars program would have started in 2009—more than a decade before the national fuel economy standard will take effect—reducing vehicle greenhouse gas emissions 22 percent by 2012 and 30 percent by 2016; and
3. tackling any global problem always requires a "think globally, act locally" approach, so denying California's request to regulate vehicle emissions within the state's jurisdiction because it can't effect a global solution doesn't really make sense.

"While President Bush signed into law fuel economy standards today, the two policies are not comparable with regards to global warming pollution reductions by 2020," Environment California said in a statement. "In fact, California will emit three times more global warming pollution per year by 2020 under the fuel economy standards signed into law today by President Bush, than it would have under the Clean Cars Program had the waiver been granted."

EPA Decision Will Have Long-Term Environmental Consequences
Seventeen other states were waiting for the EPA to grant California’s request for a waiver, which would have automatically given them a green light to implement their own stricter regulations for vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. Those states include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington. By denying California’s request, the EPA also prevented the other states from moving forward to limit vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Environmental Defense, California and the 17 other states account for nearly 50 percent of the total U.S. population and for approximately 45 percent of new automobile sales nationwide. Implementing the Clean Cars program in these states would lead to groundbreaking reductions in global warming pollution. By 2020, the program would prevent annual emissions equivalent to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide, a principal heat-trapping greenhouse gas. These savings would be equivalent to closing more than thirty 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants or taking 20 million cars off the road.

“The administration is putting the brakes on state action to address the global warming crisis,” said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel for Environmental Defense and a former attorney in the EPA General Counsel’s office. “The Administration’s first bold act on global warming—and it’s to stop the states who are trying to do something about the problem. It is just plain shocking.”

My Take on the EPA Decision to Deny California’s Request
Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has not only refused to take any serious action to help curb global warming, he and his administration have consistently undermined the efforts of others to tackle the problem.

It started when President Bush refused to submit the Kyoto Protocol for ratification, and it is still going on. Just witness the president’s refusal to work constructively with other world leaders at the G-8 meeting earlier this year and in Bali earlier this month as they tried to develop a plan to reduce global warming and avoid its worst effects. Instead, the president announced his own plan just before the G-8 meeting, a plan that was little more than a political diversion, as evidenced by its failure to achieve any results or even to spark serious discussion.

EPA Administration Stephen Johnson is a Bush appointee and a good foot soldier in the president’s campaign to do little or nothing to actually help curb global warming, but he is also the nation’s top official who is charged with protecting the environment. He has a responsibility not only to President Bush, but also to the American people. With this decision, both Administrator Johnson and President Bush are not only failing to protect the environment, they are doing serious damage to our planet.

Also Read:

• Federal Court Rules California Can Control Vehicle Emissions
• U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Bush Policy on Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• New U.S. Energy Law Promises Efficiency, Savings and Fewer Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• EPA Rejects California's Greenhouse Gas Tailpipe Law -- Environmental News Service
• All About Global Warming
• What is the Greenhouse Effect?