Panel Votes Bill To Reverse EPA Decision On California Emissions Waiver

Wed. May 21, 2008


by Terry Kivlan

WASHINGTON (May 21, 2008) – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday narrowly approved legislation that would overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) December decision denying California a waiver to enforce its program to reduce global warming pollution from automobile tail pipes.

The bill cleared the committee 10-9 [Vote 1] with only one Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., voting nay. Caper said the granting of the waiver would unintentionally undercut last year’s bipartisan agreement to raise CAFÉ standards from 27.5 miles per gallon to 35 m.p.g. “I believe we have done the right thing nationally for California” and the other states, Carper said.

Among Republicans, only Sen. John Warner, R-Va., voted for the bill.

As evidence for Democratic allegations that the rejection was based on politics not science, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., sponsor of the bill, cited the recently unearthed White House memo suggesting that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson was leaning toward approving the waiver but changed his mind under pressure from White House officials. “It’s pretty obvious we are not getting the entire story,” said Boxer, noting that the White House has refused to turn over e-mails on the matter.

Boxer also noted that the California waiver was the only state request of this kind ever turned down by EPA.

Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., said it did “not make sense” to let various states set their own auto emission control standards.

The California program would require automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions from new models 30 percent by 2016, effectively mandating a fleet fuel efficiency standard of 42 miles per gallon In rejecting California’s waive request, Johnson said the purpose of such waivers was to permit states to address local and regional issues, not global warming, and that the impacts of climate change on California were not “compelling and extraordinary compared to the rest of the country.”

Auto companies have lobbied against the reversal of the waive rejection, arguing it would cede federal control of fuel economy standards to the states and subject the industry to a patchwork of as many as 50 different regulatory regimes.

More than a dozen other states were poised to adopt the California standards if EPA had granted the waiver.

Boxer’s bill to overturn the rejection has drawn support from a host of influential Senate Democrats, including the party’s top two presidential contenders, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.

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