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Sierra Club Demands that EPA Approve California's Clean Cars Waiver Request Sacramento, Calif. -- May 30, Denouncing more than a year and a half of delay by the federal government that has prevented California and 11 other states from implementing a law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, the Sierra Club today called on the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to immediately approve a needed "waiver" to the Clean Air Act permitting states to exceed federal standards in combating pollution. The Sierra Club's regional staff director for California, Nevada and Hawaii, Carl Zichella, told agency officials that further delay in approving California's waiver was "making global warming more dangerous and difficult to solve." This failure to act was "unacceptable, irresponsible and immoral." "The debate over the science of global warming and the role of human activities in causing the problem is over. The debate over whether EPA has the authority to regulate CO2 is now also over. EPA has refused to act on California's request for more than a year and a half. It is now time for this unnecessary and dangerous delay to end. In the face of scientific and legal consensus, further delay amounts to playing politics with a lethal problem," Zichella said. Cataloguing an array of forecast - and in many cases already observable - impacts for California, Zichella told the agency that state's could not afford to wait while the Bush administration continues to dither on serious regulation of greenhouse gases. "Drought, declining snowpack in the Sierra Nevada (water supply for more than 20 million people; this year's snowpack was at its lowest level in 20 years), decreased crop yields and soil moisture, increased wildfire risk, an increased number of deaths due to elevated temperatures, water shortages, and declining flows in the Colorado River (water source for many southern California communities), and escalating rates of extinction for California wildlife are all threatening the state. California is second only to Hawaii in numbers of endemic species. We are facing a staggering biological loss with global implications," Zichella told agency officials. "It is clear from the actions of the 11 other states that have adopted California's law that they feel compelled to act", Zichella said. "Grant the waiver and grant it now," he said. "Time is running out." ### Testimony of Carl Zichella,
The Clean Air Act allows states with poor air quality to choose between complying with federal vehicle emission standards and adopting the more protective standards - known as the Clean Cars Program - implemented by the state of California. The states have much to lose, and to them, delay is not an option. Forecast - indeed in many instances already observable - impacts due to global warming threaten states with an array of critical problems, many of which will worsen without swift action. For California, the list is frightening. Drought, declining snowpack in the Sierra Nevada (water supply for more than 20 million people; this year's snowpack was at its lowest level in 20 years), decreased crop yields and soil moisture, increased wildfire risk, an increased number of deaths due to elevated temperatures, water shortages, and declining flows in the Colorado River (water source for many southern California communities), and escalating rates of extinction for California wildlife. California is second only to Hawaii in numbers of endemic species. We are facing a staggering biological loss of global implications. While the EPA has delayed, California exercised its responsibility to protect her citizens. More than seven in ten Californians supported the adoption of this law, according to pre-enactment polling done by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. It is clear from the actions of the 11 other states that have adopted California's law (affecting potentially 40% of the US automobile market) that these and the five other states considering doing so, felt compelled to act. The debate over the science of global warming and the role of human activities in causing the problem is over. The debate over whether EPA has the authority to regulate CO2 is now also over. EPA has refused to act on California's request for more than a year and a half. It is now time for this unnecessary and dangerous delay to end. In the face of scientific and legal consensus, further delay amounts to playing politics with a lethal problem. Further delay is very much like telling a patient with a treatable disease that s/he must unnecessarily wait until administration officials who denied the disease even exists dictate to his/her doctors the "acceptable" course of treatment. If the patient worsens and the therapeutic regime becomes more intrusive, difficult, or even impossible, so be it. This is unacceptable, irresponsible and immoral. Your failure - the administration's failure - to act would make this problem more dangerous and difficult to solve. Future generations of Americans will suffer the threat of diminished - perhaps greatly so - lives as a consequence of this failure. We call on EPA to immediately grant this waiver and assist California and the states in moving forward to address this problem before its consequences worsen. Stop playing politics with this problem. EPA has approved more than 50 waiver requests from California in the last four decades. While each and every one was in its way groundbreaking and important, none has been more important, not just to California but to the nation, than this one is today. Grant the waiver and grant it now. Time is running out.
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