Senate Bill Would Force EPA Ruling On Calif Emissions
July 31, 2007: 03:52 PM EST
(Updates with background and comment from Calif Gov. Schwarzenegger's office)
By Ian Talley and Cassandra Sweet
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A U.S. Senate panel passed a bill Tuesday that would force the Environmental Protection Agency to rule by Sept. 30 on whether it would grant a waiver to California to regulate vehicle emissions.
Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D- Calif., wants to accelerate the EPA's ruling on the waiver, since the process has already taken more than a year and a half.
The committee voted along party lines, approving the bill, S. 1785, by a 10-9 vote.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said earlier this month his agency plans to issue a decision by December. But that timeline is too long for Boxer and California officials who have been pressing the agency to make a decision sooner.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pressed the EPA for a prompt decision and pledged that the state would sue if a decision wasn't made by Oct. 22.
"Administrator Johnson has been clearly put on notice that EPA should have long ago granted this waiver," Boxer said.
Schwarzenegger plans to adhere to the Oct. 22 deadline, said Bill Maile, a spokesman for the governor.
"Gov. Schwarzenegger has said he will pursue all legal avenues to obtain a waiver," Maile said.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown also has pledged a lawsuit if the EPA doesn't decide by October, saying federal law allows California to set vehicle emission standards that are more stringent than federal regulations, and other states can legally adopt California's standard.
At least 12 other states are waiting for the EPA's ruling on California to determine if they too might be granted a waiver to adopt similar emission rules. Those states include Florida, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington and Oregon.
Under a 2002 California law, automakers would need to cut greenhouse gas emissions for passenger cars by as much as 25% and SUVs by 18% starting in model year 2009. But California needs a waiver from federal law to implement the program, which would be stricter than federal rules.
While auto manufacturers have sued California to block the greenhouse gas regulations, several states, led by California, have threatened legal action against the EPA for what they called stalling tactics.
The EPA said it needed a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether carbon dioxide was a pollutant in order to make a waiver ruling. In April, the Supreme Court declared that CO2 is a pollutant and that the federal government is obligated to regulate it. Since then, the EPA has said it is moving on the issue, though critics say the agency is moving far too slowly. The agency says it is now processing more than 64,000 responses it received during its public comment period.
At a recent hearing on the regulating carbon dioxide emissions, Boxer said about 54,000 of the comments were one-page form comments.
The full Senate, the House and the president would still need to approve the bill.
President George W. Bush has directed the EPA to craft federal rules for greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles by the end of 2008. In June, Johnson said he is aiming to have draft rules for regulating carbon emissions by the end of the year. The EPA would rather have federal rules than a patchwork of state regulations.
Regulating greenhouse gases from vehicles and recognizing carbon dioxide as a pollutant could have an impact on other emitters too, Johnson said. He said his agency is studying the impact of vehicle greenhouse-gas regulations on stationary sources such as power generators, refiners and chemical plants.
Although federal regulation for greenhouse gases from vehicles might initially affect car manufacturers such as Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Co. (GM) and DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX), ultimately, EPA carbon dioxide rules could also hit utilities such as American Electric Power Co. (AEP) and TXU Corp. (TXU), refiners such as Tesoro Corp. (TSO) and Valero Energy Corp. (VLO), as well as most chemical companies, oil companies and any other major greenhouse-gas emitters.
If the EPA decides that greenhouse-gas emissions from cars pose a danger to humans or the environment, it will also have to develop standards for other emitters such as coal or gas generators and refiners, said David Bookbinder, director of climate litigation at the environmental group the Sierra Club.
Although the EPA has the authority to craft regulations requiring new sources of emissions to meet certain performance levels, under the Clean Air Act, states would then be able to apply those performance standards retroactively for existing facilities.
The Sierra Club has a case pending against the EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Of Columbia Circuit that addresses greenhouse gases from all fossil-fueled power plants nationwide. The EPA, Bookbinder said, wants to delay the court's decision "because they do not want to be in the position to begin a rule-making process on this too."
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