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California Sues EPA

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California sued the federal government in its ongoing bid to set the country’s first greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks, and SUVs, providing new data to show its program is superior to a federal plan.

The lawsuit filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asks the federal Environmental Protection Agency to review its own decision to deny California a waiver it and 16 other states need to regulate greenhouse gases from new cars and trucks.

EPA Adminstrator Stephen L. Johnson said the federal government had a national plan to raise fuel economy standards and dismissed California’s arguments that it faced extraordinary threats from climate change.

“ I think we are coming back strong not only with our legal case, but our technical justification,” California Air Resources Board chair May Nichols told reporters.

Johnson said energy legislation signed by President Bush will raise fuel economy standards to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, which he called a far more effective approach to reducing greenhouse gases than a patchwork of state regulations.

California’s more aggressive law would have required the auto industry to cut emissions by one-third in new vehicles by 2016, boosting efficiency to about 36.8 mpg.

In an e-mailed statement, EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the new federal standard “establishes an aggressive standard for all 50 states - as opposed to a lower standard in California and a patchwork of other states.”

By 2016, California’s standard would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that vehicles produce by 45.4 million metric tons a year in California and the 12 other states that have adopted the rules. That’s nearly double the 23.4 million metric tons the report forecast would be cut under the federal fuel-efficiency standards, according to the analysis, which was based on EPA air pollution modeling.

By 2020, the California law would achieve a 44 mpg standard if the state extended its law as regulators have suggested, the report said.

Nichols said the report shows the EPA’s rationale for denying the waiver was wrong. She and a coalition of environmental groups also challenged Johnson’s claim that California does not face extraordinary conditions from climate change.

Scientists say rising seas could erode the state’s coastline and top its levees, while warming temperatures are expected to reduce the Sierra snowpak, leading to a potential water crisis.

“ He’s wrong factually and legally,” said David Doniger, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which led environmental groups in filing a similar lawsuit. “No other state can claim to be affected in so many serious ways as California.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement that EPA officials “are ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming.”

“ Today, there is simply no environmental issue more compelling - or extraordinary - than the increasing threat of climate change,” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

The EPA’s decision was a victory for automakers, who had argued they would be forced to reduce their selection of vehicles and raise prices in states that adopted California’s standards.

It was the first time the EPA had fully denied California a waiver under the Clean Air Act since Congress gave the state the right to obtain such waivers in 1967.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed the suit in San Francisco’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is viewed as more friendly to the state’s position than other federal courts. Brown said he expects the Bush administration will seek to transfer the case to the more conservative Washington, D.C.-based appeals court.

“ We understand this is a long fight that may go to the Supreme Court,” Brown said. “We feel this is going to be a struggle.”

The EPA’s denial angered members of Congress, including California Democrats. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Henry Waxman, who chair the committees that oversee the EPA, said the agency ignored the legal requirements of the Clean Air Act.

The EPA said it would turn over all documents about its decisions to congressional committees that have promised hearings, including its communications with the White House.

The auto regulations are a major part of California’s global warming law, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases statewide by 25 percent by 2020. Auto emissions account for about 17 percent of the state’s proposed reductions.

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