EPA justifies blocking Calif. waiver
The long-awaited analysis drew angry ridicule from environmentalists and officials in California and some of the dozen-plus other states that also wanted to implement the greenhouse gas emissions reductions sought by California.
In a 48-page document describing the reasoning behind its December decision, the EPA argues that California doesn't have the "compelling and extraordinary conditions" required for a waiver under the Clean Air Act, because the rest of the nation also suffers the effects of global warming.
"In my judgment, the impacts of global climate change in California, compared to the rest of the nation as a whole, are not sufficiently different to be considered 'compelling and extraordinary conditions' that merit separate state GHG (greenhouse gas) standards for new motor vehicles," says the document, which was signed by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and will be published in the Federal Register.
Environmentalists and California officials disagreed, contending that California has been granted Clean Air Act waivers in the past to deal with problems that are also happening elsewhere, such as diesel pollution.
Critics also argued that California does, in fact, have unique problems from global warming because no other state has its combination of wildfire risks, high smog levels, rising sea level and water shortage problems.
"There's no other state that can claim the same wide range of severe impacts that California is already suffering," said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He called the analysis "the latest cynical brush-off of global warming from this administration."
The EPA has been sued by California, more than a dozen other states and a coalition of environmental groups over the decision. Congressional Democrats have also released internal agency documents showing that career staff believed Johnson should grant the waiver.
"The law does not direct me to carry out a popularity contest," Johnson told The Associated Press Friday. "I needed to go by what the law directed me to do, informed by legislative history. ... It's the right decision."
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Automobile Dealers Association supported him in statements Friday.
"By rejecting a confusing multistate approach, the administrator recognizes the need for a single national solution to address energy security, tailpipe emissions and global climate change," said NADA vice president Andy Koblenz.
The Clean Air Act gives California special authority to regulate vehicle pollution because the state began such regulations before the federal government. But a federal waiver is required, and if California gets one, then other states can adopt California's standards, too.
California's tailpipe emissions law would have forced automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016.
Twelve other states—Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington—had adopted California's tailpipe standards and the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah had said they also plan to adopt them. The rules were under consideration elsewhere, too.
In denying the waiver, Johnson argued that a nationwide approach would be better and said it would be provided by a new law raising fuel economy standards. California officials argued that California's law would be stronger and act faster.
The EPA document released Friday cites a series of statistics to assert California does not have special threats from global warming, including a sea level rise on the California coast equal to or less than elsewhere in the U.S.; temperature increases in California higher than the national average, but equal to or lower than some other places, including Alaska; and precipitation increases not too different from other areas.
Environmentalists didn't dispute those specifics but insisted that taken together, California's global warming problems are unique. They also noted that in making the case that global warming doesn't only threaten California, the EPA document presents an unusually detailed portrait of the dangers of climate change from an administration that has opposed any mandatory emissions controls.
Johnson said Friday he still hasn't decided whether or when to issue plans for curbing greenhouse gases from new automobiles nationally, something President Bush announced last year after the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA had the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Source:origin1.montereyherald.com/politics/ci_8406976?n click_check=1