The EPA’s recent denial of California’s request for a waiver that would allow it to set its own GHG emissions requirements for vehicles has stirred up a fair bit of controversy over the past week. In fact, in addition to widespread criticism in the media and blogosphere, the EPA and the Bush administration have also come under fire in the legal and political arenas.

In a recent piece, the LA Times describes the political maneuvering between senior EPA officials, the White House, and auto industry executives that preceded the EPA’s December 19 ruling. Possible linkages between the auto industry’s support of last month’s energy bill and the subsequent rejection of the California waiver petition has raised eyebrows, and now Democrats are threatening congressional hearings.

Jurist has been following these developments, as well as the EPA’s decision to turn over all correspondence between the agency and the Bush Administration that pertains to the California decision.

Stay tuned - it looks like there’s a controversy brewing.

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Photo by mocodragon.

While the fuel economy standards in the latest energy bill are a welcome first step, giving us some relief from stagnation in fuel economy from vehicle fleet, the California approach, which treats greenhouse gases as pollutants, and sets performance standards, is the right way to go for the longer term.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, we need to get to a full systems approach, looking at fuels and vehicles as a system, and set up a regulatory approach that can keep steady downward pressure on allowable emissions from the fleet of vehicles on American roads.

The EPA’s decision to deny California the waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes of passenger cars and trucks doesn’t bode well for the EPA’s own proposed rule making on the same issue.

Since the US EPA won’t lead, California - and the 17 other states that want to join it - will. And with past as prologue, the courts are likely to support California. Then the EPA will follow and we’ll have a national emissions standard for greenhouse gas emissions, eventually.

It’s just too bad that the Bush Administration is going to force everything into the courts, before the inevitable occurs.

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