Attempt to Overturn CA Emission's Rules is Dead

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

It is official, Rep. Dingell and Rep. Boucher have dropped their effort to overrule California's tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions law, at least for now. Their proposal ran into the strong opposition from Speaker Pelosi, environmentalist and California elected officials. They had continued pushing the issue until yesterday, when they pulled it out of the energy bill currently under consideration in the House. SFChron:

The pair sent a memo on Monday to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, saying they would soon release a final version of the Democratic energy bill that would not contain the proposal to pre-empt California and other states from their plan to cut greenhouse gases. Other contentious provisions also would be dropped, the lawmakers said.

"You will note that a number of the more controversial issues we raised, such as coal-to-liquid fuels, fuel economy standards, a low-carbon fuel standard, various mandates, and the role of federal and state programs, are not included," Dingell, the committee chairman, and Boucher wrote in the memo.

The low-carbon fuel standard was the one getting the most heat, though Obama's position on coal-to-liquid fuels has certainly been in the news. I am a little perplexed about the dropping of fuel economy standards from the discussion. The current standards are woefully inadequate and changing them has been a priority for the Democratic leadership.

Those issues will return -- perhaps for another clash -- as soon as this fall when Pelosi has said she wants the House to consider a more comprehensive global warming bill.

"This will also give us the needed time to achieve consensus on these issues if at all possible," Dingell and Boucher told their colleagues.

Oh goodie. Boy are they stubborn.

I am fairly certain that the pair will not be able to coalesce support around overriding California's law. Speaker Pelosi is in charge and her opposition will realistically leave little chance of its revival. They will surely try, but this may be the real end of the line for this proposal.

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