Bushie Blocks California Clean Air Just For Fun

You can say that the Bush Administration is a band of crooks. You can say that they're by and large incompetent. But you can't say they lack chutzpah.

And when it comes to chutzpah, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson clearly has got what it takes. But will he hold the line now that Congress is bringing its probing power to bear?

Late last month, Johnson denied California's petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It was an act of pure, unmitigated, just-because-I-can chutzpah.

A little background first: California's rule would seek to cut emissions by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016. Not surprisingly, that's a much steeper cut than the Bush Administration (and the auto industry) wants. Since other states are following California's lead, half of the American population (and car consumers) could be affected. The CEOs of Ford and Chrysler met with Dick Cheney late last year to have a chat about this.

But Johnson came through. Consider Johnson denied California its waiver (states have to get the EPA's OK before instituting environmental rules) despite:

-- the unanimous recommendation of the agency's legal and technical staffs that he should grant the waiver

-- being told by the agency's legal staff that if he blocked the waiver, EPA would lose in court when California and environmentalists sued, but that if he granted the waiver, the move would stand in court no matter who challenged it

-- not having any real reason for denying the waiver

-- California has never had a waiver denied in the Clean Air Act's 37-year history

So far, in the two weeks since Johnson made his move, journalists haven't had much luck finding anyone who will say that his decision is supportable. The Washington Post quoted William Reilly, who was EPA administrator under President George H.W. Bush as saying, "What I want to know from the {administration} is: What possible grounds would there possibly be to deny California this waiver?"

As for Johnson and the administration, their tactic seems to be to brazen their way through this.

more...

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/005018.php

The nerve of him to make California worse off environmentally than they already are! I have friends out there and they've gone through enough as it is! Thanks for posting this.

CA v. EPA
by: David Dayen

Wed Jan 02, 2008 at 14:00:11 PM PST

Today the state of California joined with 15 others to sue the federal government over the EPA's decision to deny the granting of a waiver to the state to regulate their own greenhouse gas emissions under Fran Pavley's 2004 tailpipe law. The odds are absolutely in favor of California winning this lawsuit. Never since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 has the EPA ever denied such a waiver, and the legal justifications are extremely cloudy. However, the government has succeeded in delaying implementation, which is really all they've set out to do. So expect this to be a long and drawn-out fight that will probably not be resolved until after the choosing of a new President in November.

http://calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4730

A lot of people I know voted to re-elect Arnold. To me I could never vote for a man that twice supported W. Hey Arnold hows that support working out for yah? Has Bush delivered that federal funding he promised you yet?