Recent Event Highlights: Obama Acts on California Waiver, EPA Delays Action on Greenhouse Gases, EPA Blocks California Waiver, California Sues EPA, Federal Court Rules Regulations Are Legal, Florida Joins California, and 9 more...
Created by americanprogress on Jan 26, 2009
Last updated: 03/12/10 at 04:46 AM
Tags: energy global warming emissions EPA
Obama instructs EPA to reconsider whether to grant California a waiver to regulate automobile tailpipe emissions linked to global warming and orders the Transportation Department to issue guidelines that will ensure that the nation's auto fleet reaches an average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, if not earlier.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/25/AR2009012501687.html?hpid=topnews
The EPA refuses to carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant despite the Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, yet again squandering a chance to reduce emissions.
One year after the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA had a responsibility to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollutants under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has still failed to act to limit those emissions. "EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson has shelved his agency's findings that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public, and on Thursday told Congress that he will initiate a lengthy public comment period about whether such emissions are a risk before responding to a U.S. Supreme Court order."
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson blocks the efforts of California and more than a dozen other states to limit automobiles' carbon dioxide emissions, arguing that President George W. Bush had addressed the issue by signing a law that same day raising the corporate average fuel-efficiency standard to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/25/AR2009012501687.html?hpid=topnews
California sues EPA for dragging their feet and not approving or rejecting the stricter emissions standards. Says a Schwarzenegger spokesman, “The governor feels we have been patient enough. He has met with the EPA administrator and with the president on this and has sent letters to them both."
A Vermont federal court rules that the California standards, copied in 13 other states, are legal, despite objections from the auto industry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/us/13emissions.html
Florida becomes the 13th state to adopt California’s emissions standards.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/avp/
Behind the scenes, staff from the Department of Transportation get involved. They make calls to influential state lawmakers, urging them to contact the EPA and oppose California’s standards.
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070612112959.pdf
EPA finally holds hearings on the California waiver request. EPA administrator Steven Johnson tells Congress he’ll have his decision by the end of the year.
House Government Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman, in a letter to the Department of Transportation, calls the behavior “highly inappropriate” and “considered by some to be illegal.” He writes, “It is not an appropriate use of federal resources to lobby members of Congress to oppose state efforts to protect the environment.”
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070612112959.pdf
In response to the ruling, Bush asks federal agencies to “draw up” regulations to reduce greenhouse gasses. Critics say he is “simply delaying measures that he has the power to impose now.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400243.html
Maryland Governor O'Malley signs a law making it the 12th state to adopt the California Clean Car standard.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/avp/
EPA still hasn’t ruled on the California standards. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warns the EPA he will sue if they don’t make their decision in six months.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJH569QSBl-5FfOe4F9liGjADk3gD8SEKF7G1
The Supreme Court rules that the EPA does have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act after it claimed that it did not.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040200487.html
Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington announce the Western Climate Initiative and all embrace California’s emission standards.
http://www.westernclimateinitiative.org/
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that the Earth is “unequivocally” warming and that it is “very likely, a 90 percent probability, that most of the observed increase in temperatures is due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.”
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-02-02.asp
EPA finally holds hearings on the California waiver request. EPA administrator Steven Johnson tells Congress he’ll have his decision by the end of the year.
Seven Northeast states join California in capping carbon emissions, including automobile emissions: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont.
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/65/23210
More than 100 members of Congress send a letter to the Bush administration urging the EPA to grant California the waiver.
Oregon, Washington, and California embrace stronger auto emissions standards to create a "clean air corridor" for the West Coast.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/vehicles_health/californias-global-warming-vehicle-law.html
The California Air Resources Board approves rules requiring automakers to cut global warming emissions 30 percent from 2009 to 2016. But the new regulations require an EPA waiver under the Clean Air Act.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJH569QSBl-5FfOe4F9liGjADk3gD8SEKF7G1
California asks EPA for a waiver to let them impose these tougher regulations.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJH569QSBl-5FfOe4F9liGjADk3gD8SEKF7G1
General Motors, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota, and Ford filed a legal challenge against the State of California and the California Air Resources Board claiming that the state lacks the authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicles.
http://www.edf.org/pressrelease.cfm?contentID=4182
The California Air Resources Board fleshes out detailed regulations to “achieve the maximum feasible and cost-effective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and light trucks sold in California.”
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/vehicles_health/californias-global-warming-vehicle-law.html
California passes a law requiring automakers to “begin making vehicles that emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions by model year 2009.” Automakers immediately begin planning legal challenges.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJH569QSBl-5FfOe4F9liGjADk3gD8SEKF7G1
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