by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The Bush Administration's Department of Transportation proposal to raise fuel economy rates faster than Congress mandated last fall comes with a catch - obliterating California's proposal to regulate tailpipe emissions.  Think Progress has the relevant passage in the report.

(b) As a state regulation related to fuel economy standards, any state regulation regulating tailpipe

carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles is expressly preempted under 49 U.S.C. 32919.

(c) A state regulation regulating tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, particularly a regulation that is not attribute-based and does not separately regulate passenger cars and light trucks, conflicts with:

1. The fuel economy standards in this Part

2. The judgments made by the agency in establishing those standards, and

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[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Waiver Denied to California and 16 Other States on Crucial Global Warming Initiative
By Frank D. Russo

Today the Bush Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency denied California and at least 16 other states that want to enforce our stricter laws to control greenhouse gases from automobiles and SUV’s that cause global warming. The EPA rejected a waiver requested by California and these other states, a request that has been pending for over two years and is the kind that has been approved many times for California under the Clean Air Act since its adoption in 1963.

This not only has the potential to gut landmark legislation passed by our state's legislature in 2006, AB 32 (Nunez), but to prevent implementation of a 2004 California law, AB 1493, by then Assemblymember Fran Pavley and regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board limiting the emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons-- greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles, beginning with model year 2009.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

John Meyers spent some time going through the policy stances of Edwards and Obama with regards to a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is not just those two who favor that approach, Biden and Dodd do as well. Clinton has not talked about the issue, but Richardson has pushed it forward in recent weeks. This is one case where the Democratic nominees are more conservative than mainstream Democrats here in California.

In yesterday's speech by Sen. Barack Obama and today's speech by former Senator John Edwards, there was a small policy point that didn't quite register on first blush.

And that is that Obama and Edwards sound as though they basically agree with Schwarzenegger on the issue of a "cap and trade" system for carbon dioxide emissions.

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[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Assemblymember Lloyd E. Levine
Chair, Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee

This week, the Assembly’s Utilities and Commerce Committee, legislation that I’ve authored to phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs in California by 2012 – Assembly Bill 722 – was passed by the Committee on a bipartisan 9-3 vote. It was the first hearing for the bill, which was first announced on January 30, and since that time has garnered an amazing amount of attention around the world – and really, for quite a simple idea.

It takes 18 seconds to change a light bulb – but that 18 seconds can make all the difference to our environment, as well as California’s energy future. The goal of the legislation is to reduce power use while simultaneously cutting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 1.8 million metric tons per year, which is the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the roads and highways.