It Could Get Worse

The LA Times' Janet Wilson is reporting that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson might bury the agency's own greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions standards.

In response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that the EPA could and probably should regulate greenhouse gases as a threat to public health, Johnson had promised to have his staff prepare by Dec. 31 a national proposal on how greenhouse gases from vehicles should be regulated.

Staff and other sources said the proposed standard cleared all EPA internal reviews and was forwarded to the Department of Transportation last week, before the energy bill was done.

But it is now unclear, when, if ever, such a proposed regulation will be issued.

Johnson ordered staff to stop work on the federal greenhouse gas proposal, said two sources inside and outside the agency.

Spokesmen for both the Department of Transportation and EPA said Thursday that because of the energy legislation signed by Bush on Wednesday, they were reviewing whether they still had the authority to set their own greenhouse gas standards for vehicles.

Did someone repeal the Clean Air Act while we weren't looking?  Mass v. EPA is exceedingly clear that, under the Clean Air Act, EPA has the authority to set greenhouse gas standards for vehicles.  The energy bill doesn't change that, colloquy or no colloquy.

This incredible arrogance and disdain for the law leaves us practically speechless.  Happily, editorial boards are in full voice.

From the LA Times:

Even an administration with a stunning history of ignoring science and law for the sake of ideology outdid itself Wednesday, when the Environmental Protection Agency spiked California's groundbreaking effort to reduce global warming emissions from vehicles. From the timing of the announcement to its twisted justification, this was a decision that reeked of politics, not responsible policymaking.

From the New York Times

The Bush administration’s decision to deny California permission to regulate and reduce global warming emissions from cars and trucks is an indefensible act of executive arrogance that can only be explained as the product of ideological blindness and as a political payoff to the automobile industry.