Recently, the EPA has made a large decision against California that many are struggling to understand. The EPA was created to enforce and encourage environmental protections. The EPA recently ruled that tough anti-pollution laws recently enacted by California are to be blocked and not enforced. California's efforts are stricter than Federal limits recently signed into law and aim at higher gas mileage and less emissions.
The EPA has never before ruled against a stricter Californian Law. EPA Administrator Johnson commented on the decision stating:
“The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution – not a confusing patchwork of state rules,” Johnson said in a conference call with reporters. “I believe this is a better approach.”
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California's law would not have conflicted in any way with the Federal law. There was no real reason to override California in this.
After that report, it has also come out that this decision was made AGAINST the advice of the EPA Administrator's own staff.
"California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers," said an EPA staffer. "We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts."
EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced Wednesday that because President Bush had signed an energy bill raising average fuel economy that there was no need or justification for separate state regulation. He also said that California's request did not meet the legal standard set out in the Clean Air Act.
But his staff, which had worked for months on the waiver decision, concluded just the opposite, the sources said Thursday. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media or because they feared reprisals.
California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said she was also told by EPA staff that they were overruled by Johnson.
She said Johnson's decision showed "that this administration ignores the science and ignores the law to reach the politically convenient conclusion."
Nichols, who served as assistant EPA administrator overseeing air regulations under President Clinton, said she had helped write waiver decisions there, and "I know California met all the criteria on this one."
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Due to the conflicts arising from this decision, and the way it was carried out, the House Oversight Committee is now investigating the whole incident.
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California is also suing the Federal Government and the EPA in particular to have this decision overturned. From the article:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for denying its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, challenging the Bush administration's conclusion that states have no business setting emission standards.
Other states are expected to join the lawsuit[...]
"There's absolutely no justification for the administrator's action," Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday. "It's illegal. It's unconscionable and a gross dereliction of duty."
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This is not over and there is every indication California will win the lawsuit and somebody is going to be very embarrassed by the end of this.
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