A controversial decision handed down by the EPA on Dec. 19 to deny California its request to implement laws limiting pollution from new automobiles has not gone unchallenged. Five nonprofit groups — including the Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense, International Center for Technology Assessment, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra Club — have filed a lawsuit claiming the EPA is dragging its feet in the face of global warming by denying the Golden State's request. "While global warming marches onward, the EPA continues to drag its feet," says Jim Tripp, general counsel of Environmental Defense. "The agency's decision defies the law, the science and the will of states representing nearly half of the U.S. population." At stake are historic California standards to lower global warming pollution from passenger cars and trucks. The California standards are scheduled to take effect in model year 2009 and secure a 30 percent fleet wide reduction by 2016. The state program would be the first binding program in the nation to strictly limit global warming pollution. Until now, EPA has consistently granted more than 50 such requests from California over the past 40 years for waivers under the Clean Air Act. The federal law broadly guarantees California's right to adopt its own motor vehicle emission standards so long as they are more protective than the federal emission standards. There are no federal greenhouse gas emission standards in place for any pollution source. Sixteen other states have adopted or have committed to adopt the California standards including: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington. Collectively, California and the other states account for nearly one-half of the U.S. population and about 45 percent of all new vehicle sales nationwide. "The Administrator's denial of California's request relies on a flawed argument that the federal courts already have rejected," Tripp says. "We've won before in the federal courts, so we expect to win again this time too." "California has long played a pioneering role in clean air efforts," adds Karen Douglas, director of the California Climate Initiative of Environmental Defense. "We can and must reduce global warming pollution from automobiles." California's binding statewide cap on global warming pollution calls for cutting pollution to 1990 levels by 2020 as called for in AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. The cap will drive further cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles between 2016 and 2020, so several phases of reductions, advancing new generation of technologies, will be implemented in California. For more information about this issue, visit Environmental Defense's Web site. |
