Global Warming In the News

As expected, the Environmental Protection Agency today approved California's longstanding application to set tougher auto emission standards as a tool for combating climate change, reports the Associated Press.

"The California regulation requires automakers to increase the fuel economy of cars and trucks sold in the state by 40 percent over the next seven years, to an average of 35.5 mpg," the AP reports. California had been asking for the waiver since 2005, but the EPA under the Bush Administration had turned it down.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in an agency news release, said the decision "puts the law and science first." As Reuters notes, it comes just over a month "after Obama on May 19 ordered the struggling auto industry to cut emissions and improve gas mileage."

Two years ago, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order that would set the exact same emissions standards as California, as soon as California got its EPA waiver. It would be one of 17 states following California's lead.

But the following year the Legislature passed a law that said Crist couldn't set those standards without legislative approval. And this spring, a bill to approve the tougher emissions standards were held hostage in the House by lawmakers who wanted to allow offshore drilling within 3 miles of Florida's beaches, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. And it didn't even get out of committee in the Senate.

Automakers had hired super-lobbyist Wade Hopping to press their case in Tallahassee, and he successfully argued that Florida lawmakers should wait until there is a national emissions standard rather than simply following what California does, according to the Miami Herald

"You shouldn't give away your authority to another state,'' Hopping said as the bill sputtered and stalled.

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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