EPA justifies denial of waiver for California

"California's precipitation increases are not qualitatively different from changes in other areas," he added. "Rises in sea level in the coastal parts of the United States are projected to be as severe, or more severe, particularly in consequences, in the Atlantic and Gulf regions than in the Pacific regions . . . and while California's temperatures have increased by more than the national average, there are other places in the United States with higher or similar increases in temperature."

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown dismissed Johnson's arguments as "obfuscating, sabotaging . . . specious, ill-founded. . . . We're going to fight him until he's sent packing by the next president."

Environmentalists said Johnson's arguments ignore the fact that 18 states have either adopted the California rules or pledged to do so, and the resulting curbs on greenhouse gas emissions would have beneficial effects across the nation.

Other states that want to curb greenhouse gases from trucks and cars "are hopping mad" over the EPA's decision, said S. William Becker, executive director of the National Assn. of Clean Air Agencies. "This is a shameful attack on states' rights."

Johnson has argued that a fleetwide fuel efficiency standard of 35 miles per gallon, signed into law in December, will sufficiently curb greenhouse gases.

But state regulators counter that California's law would achieve twice the reduction as the fuel standards by 2020.

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margot.roosevelt@ latimes.com