That's what he deserves, a gigantic "emission" from a large group of Americans in response to his decision to prevent -- that's prevent -- a group of states from adopting tougher emissions standards than the federal government. It's the ultimate "my way or the highway" style of an anti-environment, avaricious Republican administration.
The Bush administration said Wednesday night that it would deny California’s bid to set stricter vehicle emissions standards than federal law required as part of the state’s efforts to fight climate change.
...The E.P.A’s decision was a victory for the American auto companies, and came just hours after President Bush signed legislation that will raise fuel economy standards by 40 percent to 35 miles a gallon in 2020.
Had the E.P.A. agreed to the waiver, California and other states would have enacted rules requiring the auto companies to achieve a 30 percent reduction of emissions by cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles by 2016. The rules were set to begin taking effect with 2009 model year vehicles, some of which go on sale as soon as next month.
Twelve states — Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — have adopted the California emissions standards, and the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah have said they planned to do so.
...State officials from California and the other states, including New York, had threatened to sue the E.P.A. in order to get a decision on the waiver, accusing it of dragging its heels. California first approved the regulations in 2003. Two years later, it submitted a request to the E.P.A. to put the standards into effect.
The agency initially argued that it did not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. But earlier this year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the agency could do so.
Wednesday’s E.P.A. ruling now raises the question of whether the states will sue the agency in order to force it to allow them to set emissions standards. Even if that happens, the states probably would not be able to implement the standards as soon as they had liked. Any legal action might not be settled in time for the regulations to begin taking effect in 2009, as California had hoped.
One environmental leader put it this way: "This decision is like pulling over the fire trucks on their way to the blaze."
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