by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

KQED's Forum is live right now with a program about whether the EPA is properly investigating the safety of chemicals.  Senator Barbara Boxer will appear on the show at 9:30 our time.  You can listen here or listen to the archive here.

by WarmingLaw [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(Cross-posted from Warming Law)  

It's a shame that Roll Call operates behind a subscription wall, because Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who chairs the House's special committee on global warming, has a great op-ed there today summarizing where things stand moving forward from the solid energy bill framework that congressional Democrats hope to pass, "Global Warming At the Starting Gate." One key highlight:

Seventeen states (representing over 46 percent of Americans) have adopted or will soon adopt global warming emissions standards for vehicles. The federal district court in Vermont recently held that federal law does not prohibit such measures. What remains to be seen this year is whether the Bush EPA will grant these states the waiver they need to enforce these tailpipe standards, or spurn their ambitious action.

read more »

by WarmingLaw [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(Cross-posted from Warming Law, which focuses on covering and analyzing the fight against global warming from a legal perspective. My name is Sean Siperstein, and I run Warming Law as part of my work for Community Rights Counsel, a non-profit, public interest law firm that assists communities in protecting their health and welfare. Given the blog's focus, a lot of what I write about ends up having to do with efforts by the administration and the auto industry to hold up California's pioneering efforts in fighting global warming (here's our full archive of posts about the EPA waiver application), and as such I'm (belatedly) taking up a suggestion to post select items here. Thanks for the opportunity to join the discussion; I really look forward to it!)

Reacting to last week's lawsuit challenging the EPA's failure to produce a timely decision on California's waiver application to enforce its own auto emissions standards, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson cited-- as he had many times before-- the need to painstakingly evaluate thousands upon thousands of in-depth public comments on the waiver.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by dday [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

We didn't need any more evidence that the Bush Administration uses the executive branch as a political instrument.  But this latest example shows that they will use federal agencies to work to oppose legislative efforts at the state level, making a complete mockery of the entire premise of federalism itself.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman has received information that the Department of Transportation has been lobbying members of Congress to oppose state efforts, sought by California and others, to regulate tailpipe emissions.  California is waiting for an EPA waiver to implement their tailpipe emissions proposal.  The Governor has threatened to sue the EPA if they don't receive that waiver.  The first roadblock that the EPA tried was to appeal to the Supreme Court by claiming that they didn't have the ability to regulate greenhouse gases, but in a landmark decision the Supreme Court said that they did.  So plan B, apparently, is to use the DOT to threaten legislators in automobile-producing districts that their local economies would be severly impacted by any efforts to regulate.  This excerpt is from a letter by Waxman to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Fabian Nunez
Speaker of the California Assembly

Speaker Fabian Nunez testified yesterday before the Environmental Protection Agency in Sacramento to encourage them to grant California's request for a waiver to implement the state's fuel efficiency standards.

The Speaker's remarks are below in full and you can watch them being delivered.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming to Sacramento to consider this waiver.

Climate change brought on by man-made emissions of greenhouse gases has become the environmental crisis of our time.

Today you have the opportunity help California take a vital step in slowing or stopping this crisis by granting California a waiver to allow for tailpipe emission standards of global warming causing greenhouse gases.

A little background: