From Monday, May 21:


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 21 May 2007
Contact: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384

             EPA Should Give California Its Clean Air Act Waiver
            Law and Science Clearly Point Toward Immediate Action

Tomorrow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold its first
hearing in response to California’s longstanding request to implement
landmark global warming emissions standards for new automobiles.  Under the
Clean Air Act (CAA), California is permitted to set higher vehicle
emissions standards than the federal government, with other states given
the option to enact either the federal or the California standard.  By
affirming EPA’s authority to regulate global warming pollutants under the
CAA in Mass. v. EPA, the Supreme Court placed California’s own efforts to
do so under the CAA on solid legal footing. California and thirteen other
states--comprising some forty percent of the U.S. auto market--have shown
bold leadership on global warming by enacting these standards and continue
to wait for the EPA to grant them the waiver they need to move forward.


           Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director

"Washington D.C. is mired in the energy politics of the past while states
like California are giving us the bold, visionary policies that will
protect our future. Instead of sitting in neutral until the last days of
2008, it’s time for the Bush administration to get out of the way and let
California shift its fight against global warming into high gear.

"In its decision in Massachusetts v. EPA the Supreme Court spoke clearly
and firmly: carbon dioxide is an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act and
the EPA can and should use its authority to regulate it.  As evidence
continues to mount about the effects of global warming that we are already
experiencing and the severe consequences yet to come if we fail to act, EPA
continues to equivocate about whether it will grant California the waiver
it needs to implement its landmark global warming emissions standards for
new vehicles.  The thirteen other states that have followed California’s
lead also continue to wait.  There have been over forty such requests in
the past and EPA has never denied a single one.  The law and the science on
this issue are clear and EPA should act without further delay to grant this
waiver.

"Scientists tell us that we need to reduce our global warming emissions 80
percent by 2050, which we can achieve through an annual average reduction
of 2 percent.  The visionary policies embraced by California and other
states across the country are paving the way toward meeting this goal by
promoting the smart energy solutions that are indispensable in the fight
against global warming."

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