EPA Denies California Bid to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The Bush administration Wednesday blocked a landmark California law aimed at curtailing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the California law was effectively pre-empted by the new national energy bill signed earlier in the day by President Bush. The energy bill ramps up fuel economy in motor vehicles and delivers significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said in a conference call with reporters.
Johnson said the energy bill creates a “national standard” that will be more effective than “if individual states were to act alone.” Global warming “is a global problem that requires a clear national solution,” he added.
State officials had contended that their approach was tougher and more effective on combatting global warming. Not only does it require cuts to occur more quickly, other states would join in and adopt California’s standards, state officials said.
Johnson said he had called Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to inform him of his decision and told the governor that California’s efforts had helped prod Congress to pass the new energy bill.
The governor’s press secretary, Aaron McClear, said the two had a “terse conversation.” Schwarzenegger expressed his disappointment with the decision, McClear said.
“We will continue to fight this battle,” the governor said in a press release. “California sued to compel the agency to act on our waiver, and now we will sue to overturn today’s decision and allow Californians to protect our environment.”
California officials had anticipated that the EPA would block the law and had promised to sue the agency for doing so.
Schwarzenegger’s predecessor Gray Davis signed AB 1493, also known as the Pavley bill, in 2002. The law would have required 30 percent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. State officials said the bulk of the cuts would be achieved by ramping up fuel economy from the current 27.5 mpg to around 34 mpg.
The federal law increases mileage standards to 35 mpg by 2020.
California is the only state that can create its own air emissions standards but needs the federal government’s permission. Other states can piggyback on the California standards once the U.S. government grants its OK to California.
California submitted its request for a waiver two years ago and filed suit against the EPA last month to force a decision.
Some 17 other states had adopted copycat laws, or were on the verge of adopting copycat laws, when the EPA’s decision came down.
“They’re sticking their thumb in the eye of 18 governors from red and blue states,” said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which helped California fight off a legal challenge to the Pavley law filed by the world’s automakers in two federal court cases.
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