[NYTr] Env: California sues US over emissions

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

BBC - Jan 3, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7169200.stm


California sues US over emissions

California is suing the US federal government, in an attempt to force
car makers to conform to tougher cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

The lawsuit comes after the federal Environmental Protection Agency
denied California a waiver from US law needed to enact its own
efficiency targets.

The Epa says it wants to avoid a confusing patchwork of different
regulations across states.

But California says the Epa has "done nothing" to curb greenhouse gases.

Fifteen other states or state agencies are set to join the action.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed the suit in the 9th US
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday.

It challenged the Epa's denial of California's request to implement its
own emissions law - which would require a 30% reduction in motor
vehicle greenhouse gas emissions by 2016 by improving fuel efficiency
standards.

Melting snowpack

For years, California has been allowed to set its own environmental
targets in recognition of the "compelling and extraordinary conditions"
the state faces - and the Epa has never before denied California a
waiver request.

California claims it faces dangerous consequences from global warming,
including to its mountain snowpack, which supplies a third of the
state's drinking water, and to miles of coastline and levees threatened
by rising sea levels.

"The Epa has done nothing at the national level to curb greenhouse
gases and now it has wrongfully and illegally blocked California's
landmark tailpipe emissions standards, despite the fact that 16 states
have moved to adopt them," said Attorney General Brown in a statement.

He said he was aware the legal challenge could turn into a "long fight".

But the Epa says new energy legislation signed by President George W
Bush will provide a far more effective approach to reducing greenhouse
gases than a patchwork of state regulations.

Fifteen other states or state agencies said on Wednesday that they plan
to intervene in support of California's action.

They are: Massachusetts, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois,
Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection, Rhode Island, Vermont and
Washington. 

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