|
EPA Should Give California Its Clean Air Act Waiver Law and Science Clearly Point Toward Immediate Action Tomorrow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold its first hearing in response to California’s long-standing request to implement landmark global warming emissions standards for new automobiles. Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), California is permitted to set higher vehicle emissions standards than the federal government, with other states given the option to enact either the federal or the California standard. By affirming EPA’s authority to regulate global warming pollutants under the CAA in Mass. v. EPA, the Supreme Court placed California’s own efforts to do so under the CAA on solid legal footing. California and thirteen other states--comprising some forty percent of the U.S. auto market--have shown bold leadership on global warming by enacting these standards and continue to wait for the EPA to grant them the waiver they need to move forward.
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director "Washington D.C. is mired in the energy politics of the past while states like California are giving us the bold, visionary policies that will protect our future. Instead of sitting in neutral until the last days of 2008, it’s time for the Bush administration to get out of the way and let California shift its fight against global warming into high gear. "In its decision in Massachusetts v. EPA the Supreme Court spoke clearly and firmly: carbon dioxide is an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act and the EPA can and should use its authority to regulate it. As evidence continues to mount about the effects of global warming that we are already experiencing and the severe consequences yet to come if we fail to act, EPA continues to equivocate about whether it will grant California the waiver it needs to implement its landmark global warming emissions standards for new vehicles. The thirteen other states that have followed California’s lead also continue to wait. There have been over forty such requests in the past and EPA has never denied a single one. The law and the science on this issue are clear and EPA should act without further delay to grant this waiver. "Scientists tell us that we need to reduce our global warming emissions 80 percent by 2050, which we can achieve through an annual average reduction of 2 percent. The visionary policies embraced by California and other states across the country are paving the way toward meeting this goal by promoting the smart energy solutions that are indispensable in the fight against global warming." # # # |
