December 21, 2007
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a stunning move announced its decision to reject a request by California that it approve the state’s plan to move forward with greenhouse gas emission regulations for motor vehicles. Under the Clean Air Act, California must seek federal approval in order to adopt motor vehicle regulations that are different from federal standards. Such requests, however, have routinely been approved for several decades. California officials immediately indicated plans to sue EPA over the decision, and its Congressional members pledged legislative action. The EPA decision was made the same day President Bush signed the energy bill into law and comes just one week after a federal court in California rejected a lawsuit by automakers to prevent California from implementing the regulations.
A statement released by EPA indicates that its decision is based on the premise that California’s waiver request fails to demonstrate the regulations are necessary to “meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.” EPA also differentiated the waiver request from past requests by stating that “greenhouse gases are fundamentally global in nature, which is unlike the other air pollutants covered by prior California waivers requests.” EPA went on to indicate that the new fuel economy regulations that will be required as a result of the energy bill represent a better solution to addressing climate change than a patchwork of differing state and federal regulations.
The EPA announcement appears to indicate that it also no longer intends to release a proposed motor vehicle greenhouse gas regulation of its own and that it also may not propose an alternative fuel standard or some type of low-carbon fuel standard as had been expected. EPA was supposed to have been working on both as a result of the Supreme Court’s April decision (Mass. et al. v. EPA et al.) which held that EPA must regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Both actions now appear to be in serious doubt as the EPA press release appears to say that the Administration now plans to satisfy the court order and its previous commitments by implementing the vehicle fuel economy and renewable fuel provisions enacted in the energy bill. The White House earlier this year issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to develop regulations to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Hundreds of EPA employees were said to be working on the rulemaking effort and a proposed rule was expected before the end of the year.
For more information on this issue, contact Jeff Clarke 202/824-7364 or jclarke@NGVAmerica.org.
Courtesy of NGVAmerica, www.ngvamerica.org.