EPA Foot Dragging Slows State Action on Global Warming

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Karen Douglas, 916.492.7076
Vickie Patton, 720.837.6239
Jennifer Witherspoon, 510.457.2250 or 415.216.9598 (cell)
Tony Kreindler, 202.572.3378 or 202.210.5791 (cell)

(Washington, DC – April 24, 2007) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it would begin a public process to take input on California’s request for a waiver to implement its 2002 Clean Cars Law to reduce global warming pollution from automobiles. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson made the announcement during a hearing led by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA).

“Icebergs are moving faster than EPA,” said Karen Douglas, California Climate Initiative director of Environmental Defense. “The U.S. Supreme Court just overturned EPA’s refusal to regulate global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act, yet EPA has made no indication that it will grant California’s request or by when.”

Even when pressed by Senator Boxer, Administrator Johnson declined to give an indication of when his agency would decide to grant California’s waiver, committing only to a public hearing on May 22nd in Washington D.C. and a public comment period to end on June 15th.

California in 2002 passed the groundbreaking legislation to limit global warming pollution from tailpipes. Since then 12 other states have adopted clean car laws, including the passage of such a law in Maryland today. California set a precedent of strong clean air standards that go further than the federal government, and it has a right to pass strong state laws as long as EPA grants it a waiver under the federal Clean Air Act.

Even though California requested the waiver from EPA in December of 2005, the agency has refused to grant California’s waiver, even when requested by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), claiming it had no authority to regulate carbon dioxide from automobiles. Just this month EPA’s logjam was broken by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on April 2nd, 2007 when the Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide was a pollutant that could be regulated by EPA under its Clean Air Act authority.

AB 1493 (Pavley), or the California Clean Cars law, requires reductions of global warming pollution by 30 percent from new automobiles starting with the model year 2009. Implementing the Clean Cars law is considered a vital component for reaching the goals of AB 32, another sweeping California law to limit global warming pollution. Passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks represent the largest sources of global warming pollution in California, and are responsible for approximately 40 percent of California’s total global warming emissions.

Lawsuits are also pending in the states of California and Vermont where some automakers are trying to prevent the implementation of Clean Cars laws despite the clear body of scientific evidence that global warming is real and poses significant threats to humanity and the natural world if swift and decisive actions are not taken to reduce global warming emissions.

Eleven states have adopted California’s Clean Cars law, including: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Maryland. Many other states such as Texas may also adopt the clean cars rules.

A March 2006 National Academy of Sciences study closely reviewed and broadly affirmed California’s time-tested role in adopting breakthrough emission standards for motor vehicles. Now EPA needs to clear the way for California to continue its pioneering work on global warming pollution.

For more information, please visit: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?ContentID=6083
For more on California’s Clean Cars law please visit: http://www.calcleancars.org