WASHINGTON - California has called on the Environmental Protection Agency to decide soon on its application asking the agency to allow the state to impose tighter greenhouse gas emission laws. On Tuesday the state presented a comprehensive case before the agency urging it to accept the waiver so California could proceed with new laws.
The application has been before the EPA over the last 16 months. The EPA had argued that it was unable to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act, but a ruling by the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to take such action. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been the leading figure pressing for the state to have its own vehicle emissions caps, something the Bush administration is loathe to do.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown told the EPA yesterday that it was high time 12 states enacted tough emissions laws in order to save the population from the harmful effects of global warming.
“Together we represent one-third of the population of the United States, and the people of our 12 states want to act now to combat global warming,” Brown argued. Speaking to reporters after the hearing Brown said that Steve Douglas of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers was in a position to either become a hero or villain.
Douglas was the only one at the hearing to testify against the need of regulating emissions. “A patchwork of state-level fuel economy regulations as is now proposed by California is not simply unnecessary, it's patently counterproductive,” said Douglas.
He also added that for all of California's insistence on being allowed to regulate emissions, the state had yet to prove that the proposed rules would have a “demonstrable impact on global warming.”
Last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had threatened to sue the federal government if the EPA did not decide soon on its application.
