Gov. sues U.S. over clean-air standards - Schwarzenegger says he's frustrated waiting for federal approval for the state to impose its own tough emissions limits on automakers.
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday sued the Bush administration and said he was prepared to "sue again and sue again" until California gets permission to impose its own tough standards on automakers to curb global warming.
The governor, backed by Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, said he is frustrated to be waiting for nearly two years for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to waive federal regulations and give the state's plan a green light.
"We are now ready to implement the nation's cleanest standards for vehicle emissions, and we cannot do that, of course, until the federal government gives us a waiver," Schwarzenegger said at a Capitol news conference. "Our health and our environment are too important to delay any longer."
At issue for California is the 2009 model year and the state's desire to get prompt action from the EPA so automakers will have time to redesign their passenger cars and light vehicles, including SUVs.
Over the last four decades, the EPA has granted more than 50 requests from California to force automakers to meet tougher anti-pollution standards than imposed nationally. The state used the mechanism to pioneer such requirements as catalytic converters to reduce tailpipe emissions and on-board computers to alert drivers if their smog-control equipment malfunctions.
Thursday's move was a major assault on the federal government's response to global warming and what critics perceive to be a slow and environmentally questionable response to what many national and world leaders consider the No. 1 threat to the planet.
The U.S. Supreme Court this summer turned down the Bush administration's effort to fight the state regulation of global warming as it cleared the way for the EPA to approve California's regulations.
The justices ruled that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change should be considered pollutants under the U.S. Clean Air Act.
The high court's decision "clearly bolsters California's case and should make it more difficult for the EPA to deny the waiver," said Ann E. Carlson, a professor of environmental law at UCLA. Carlson noted that the EPA never denied a California request for new tools to deal with local smog conditions. But the agency could balk at allowing California to set the national agenda when it comes to tackling a global problem such as climate change, she said.
