Petition text:

While California burns, your EPA is sitting on a waiver request from that state that would allow it to combat global warming through the regulation of greenhouse gases in vehicle emissions. Few states understand the potential and current impacts of global warming better than the state of California, which has an obligation to protect its citizens against the economic and ecological impacts of climate change -- impacts like wildfires, which are already on the rise due to global warming.

Please work with your EPA to issue a timely decision allowing California, and its emulators among the other states, to move ahead with the "Clean Car" plan.

President George Bush is playing the hero again as he tours fire-ravaged California this week. Yet his expressions of concern are not likely to be taken well, since he has stood in the way of that state's effort to fight global warming emissions for the last two years!

While Bush is attempting to score compassion points with the people of California, let's tell him not to burn Californians by blocking their duly enacted laws. The EPA must allow the state's Pavley, or "Clean Cars" fuel emission standards to go forward - along with the standards of a dozen other states that have followed California's lead.

No one fire can be blamed on global warming, but there is no doubt that changes in our climate are causing more fires that are more severe. The tragic events unfolding in California are yet another stark reminder that action is needed to combat global warming now, and the EPA should not stand in the way of California's lead.

What is Pavley?
California passed the Pavley Act in 2005, mandating a gradual reduction in global warming pollutants emitted by cars and light trucks sold in California over an eight-year phase in period. The standard would reduce global warming emissions from cars and light trucks in California and the twelve other states by nearly 30 percent. The thirteen states combined represent such a large market that EPA approval of Pavley would likely change automobile industry practices nationwide.

Why must the EPA approve it?
The EPA must grant a waiver for any state regulation of vehicle emissions. Yet, the EPA has delayed this ruling by claiming it lacks the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles -- an excuse made obsolete by last April's Supreme Court ruling finding that the EPA does have such authority. The EPA is now just dragging its heels.

What do we need to do?
Friends of the Earth has set up a petition to Bush demanding that he untie the hands of the beleaguered state of California and let it fight global warming with its Pavley law. Friends of the Earth will send copies of the signatures it collects to the legislature and media in California, so that they know the nation is behind their state's leadership even if Bush is not.

Sign the petition today. The EPA is expected to finally hand down its decision before the end of this year, and this could be our last chance to ensure that decision is the right one.

Danielle Fugere
Friends of the Earth California Office

Sign the petition here: http://www.FOE.org/Free_California