Sixteen states, led by California, Vermont, and New York, agreed on January 2 to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for blocking their state plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. California Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. filed the lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit saying that EPA was "illegally" blocking California's standards curbing vehicular greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, California's law requires a reduction in vehicular emissions by 30% by 2016.
Last month, EPA denied a waiver to California, and the other states to reduce tailpipe emissions from cars, trucks, and SUVs by 23 percent by 2012 and 30 percent by 2016. EPA noted that Congress, in the recently enacted the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, had approved an increase in federal fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. The national standard would reduce tailpipe emissions, EPA noted, and was preferable to a "patchwork quilt" of individual state regulations.
The full EPA decision has not yet been published and there is no deadline for filing it, however the decision was announced in a December 19 letter to the state of California. EPA argues that states have no right to appeal until an official decision has been released. California claims that the letter is an official action and, therefore, requires an immediate response.
The Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo (D) said that EPA's attempt to stop New York and other states from tackling global warming pollution from automobiles is "shameful."
Governor Jim Douglas (R) of Vermont said that the EPA decision was "absurd" and needed to be overturned. He added that he is confident of a "win" on appeal because there was no justification for not heeding current law.
Waxman, Boxer & Feinstein Call for an Investigation
On December 20, Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman, of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a pointed letter to EPA requesting the agency preserve and produce all documents relating to Administrator Johnson's decision to block California's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Shortly after the Johnson's announcement, both Waxman in his capacity as Chairman as well as Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced that they will further investigate how and why EPA made this decision. Waxman said, "EPA's decision ignores the law, science, and commonsense. This is a policy dictated by politics and ideology, not facts." The December 20th letter request documents be produced by late January.
In addition Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sent a letter to the EPA Deputy Inspector General, Bill Roderick, asking for a formal investigation into how the decision was made to deny California the waver. In the letter, Feinstein said that the agency administrator has "deviated from standard Administration protocols in making this unprecedented decision."