Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Schwarzenegger Sues Bush Over Climate Change

California is suing the Bush administration over delays in their request to implement a program to limit auto carbon dioxide emissions, which are linked to global warming. California asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2005 for permission to enforce the California law. The EPA's approval is needed for California to implement a law more stringent than federal clean-air standards, and the agency has granted every such request California has made over the past 30 years.

In April the U.S. Supreme Court, in a suit filed by California and other states against the EPA, ruled that carbon dioxide can be regulated by EPA." The current California suit was filed in a Washington, D.C. federal court. Imagine that: State Attorney General Jerry Brown and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger teaming to fight President Bush. EPA is reviewing more than 100,000 written responses and thousands of pages of documents it received during the public comment period and publicly states that it will act on the request by the end of the year.

The 2002 state law (Assembly Bill 1493) requires new vehicles sold in California to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The restrictions take effect with the 2009 models and increase to a 30 percent reduction from current levels by 2016. Car makers have sued to overturn the law, stating that the only way to cut greenhouse gas emissions is to increase automobile fuel economy standards, which is regulated exclusively by the federal government through the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. the model for statutes passed later in 11 other states. AB 1493 is the model for statutes passed later in 11 other Northeastern states. (More)

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