Former state Assemblymember Fran Pavley speaks out against EPA chief’s decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Former state Assemblymember Fran Pavley had every reason to expect that her landmark legislation, AB 1493, designed to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, would finally be implemented after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the Environmental Protection Agency did, indeed, have the authority to limit such emissions from motor vehicles.
But when the California Air Resources Board requested the required waiver from the EPA in order to enact and enforce the new emission standards nearly two years ago, EPA Chief Stephen Johnson hedged, saying he couldn’t grant the waiver without “further study.”
Johnson then announced Dec. 19 he was denying California the anticipated waiver following Congress’ passage of the new federal energy bill. Pavley was outraged.
“Administrator Johnson’s action was a transparently political act, designed to appease the White House’s policy of protecting its partners in the auto industry,” she said.
California has historically led the nation in legislative reform to benefit the environment and under the Federal Clean Air Act the state is allowed to enforce tougher rules than those of the federal government. This was the first time California had been denied a waiver to enact clean air rules that were cleaner than federal rules.
Pavley pointed out the EPA had previously granted California more than 40 waivers in a row to implement its own tougher environmental standards, including the right for hybrid cars to use the HOV lane on state freeways and plans to adopt alternative fuel sources.
“We’ve met all the standards required by the EPA in requesting this waiver, and a court decision in Vermont recently confirmed that states have the right to adopt California’s car emission standards,” Pavley said. “Sixteen other states are looking to adopt our same standards, so the EPA is denying states the ability to regulate over 50 percent of the vehicles in the country. The reaction to Johnson’s decision across the country has been overwhelming.”
Johnson said he denied California the right to set its own strict emission standards to avoid “a confusing patchwork of state rules” in the wake of the new federal energy bill signed into law by President Bush in December, and because California did not “meet compelling and extraordinary conditions” to request the waiver.
“But we in California have seen how dramatic weather patterns that come from global warming affects our citizens,” Pavley said. “With our snow packs melting (California’s agricultural Central Valley gets most of its irrigation source from mountain snow pack) and the potential devastation to our coastal cities with rising sea level, we have to take action.”
AB 1493 requires automakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from autos and light duty trucks 30 percent by the year 2016.
Gov. Schwarzenegger issued a statement condemning the EPA’s action: “It is disappointing that the federal government is standing in our way and ignoring the will of tens of millions of people across the nation.”
Schwarzenegger contends the new federal energy bill, which includes provisions to raise the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards slightly for the first time in more than 30 years, is not enough.
“The energy bill does not reflect a vision beyond 2020 to address climate change,” he said. “California’s vehicle greenhouse gas standards are part of a carefully designed, comprehensive program to fight climate change through 2050.”
Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, immediately launched a probe into the EPA chief’s decision. Both U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were quick to voice their ire.
“Be assured that I will do anything in my power to protect our state’s right to control greenhouse gas emissions,” Boxer wrote in a statement.
Feinstein said the EPA should be renamed “The Environmental Obstruction Agency.”
Pavley noted that the governor’s office had announced the intention to file suit in the DC Court of Appeals against the decision. She also said there was reason to expedite legal enforcement, as her bill specifically addresses vehicles designed for model year 2009.
“It is highly likely that the other 16 states set to adopt California’s standards will join the suit,” Pavley said. “Vermont and New York certainly will. States do stick up for each other and I think that governors see this as a states’ rights issues.”
Bolstering the argument to overturn the EPA decision are reports that Johnson’s own staff unanimously urged him to issue the waiver, saying the EPA has no legal right to deny the request as California had met all its requirements.
Auto manufacturers have long argued against requiring cars sold in California to meet higher emission standards, saying it would make them less competitive and they would be unable to alter production to meet compliance with the law in time. Vice President Dick Cheney met with executives from Ford and General Motors in November to discuss this.
When the California Legislature passed Pavley’s bill in 2002, the automakers sued to prevent the bill from being enforced and were joined by the Bush administration, arguing that CO2, the main component of tailpipe emissions, was not a pollutant. That argument was invalidated in the Supreme Court decision last spring and a federal judge threw out the automakers’ suit in December.
“EPA’s denial of our waiver request to enact the nation’s cleanest standards for vehicle emissions is legally indefensible and another example of the failure to treat climate change with the seriousness it demands,” Schwarzenegger had said.
“I’m an optimist and I think this will eventually be ruled in our favor,” Pavley said. “I’ll be introducing new clean car standards in January.”