Suing the EPA
by J.D. AdamsDecember 25th, 2007 at 15:54:58
Remember the Clean Air Act of 1970? It gave California the authority to set its own clean air standards, contingent on a federal waiver. Since then, California has made several requests for waivers and has never been refused. And now the Environmental Protection Agency has refused to grant a waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, dubiously based on its history of refusing to identify carbon dioxide as a pollutant covered under the Clean Air Act, yet another obstructionist policy of the Bush Administration, which has failed to move forward with changes needed to combat global warming. Two recent court decisions have cleared the path for climate control, ruling that the EPA should regulate CO2 as a pollutant, and in favor of Vermont’s automobile emissions standards, modeled after California. Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger is confronting the issue with a lawsuit against the EPA, and is joined by 14 other states, including Oregon and Washington, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
“If consensus won’t get the Bush administration to move on global warming and if conscience won’t get the Bush administration to move on global warming, then maybe the courts will get the Bush administration to move on global warming.”
California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and the Western Environmental Law Center have concurrently announced legal plans to force the EPA to grant the waiver.
Is Oregon on the cutting edge of carbon reduction, or as some might view it, lagging behind the curve? What other causes deserve to be championed by future legal action?
We need to act decisively on these environmental issues, as much as it would be a better investment of energy to focus on the next administration. Comments? Ideas?
December 30th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Corruption in the Cheney/Bush junta runs deeper than one of Dubya’s dry holes when he was failing in the oil business. A recent example: California and 16 other states–Oregon among them–want tougher standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions of cars by requiring higher fuel efficiency. EPA adminisrator Stephen Johnson turned down California’s request in spite of overwhelming support for the measure from EPA’s legal and technical staff. The rejection of California’s request for higher standards occurred after automakers met privately with Cheney. As Kurt Vonnegut might say: “And so it goes.”
January 11th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Yes, and notice how Bush’s speechwriters avoid using the word ‘legacy’.