President-elect Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection
Administration all but said in hearings today that she would reverse
the EPA’s rejection of California’s tougher-than-national greenhouse
curbs on auto emissions. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Lisa Jackson, President-elect Obama’s pick
for EPA administrator, Wednesday said she would immediately revisit the
Bush administration’s decision to block California and 18 other states
from setting tough limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles,
hinting strongly that she will overturn it. …"I will review the waiver decision, if I’m confirmed, very, very
aggressively, very soon after confirmation," Jackson told lawmakers. "I
will let science be the guide in making the decision and the rule of
law."
It’s great to hear a campaign promise about to be kept.
The Bush administration ripped away California’s longstanding right
to establish its own air quality standards last year, shortly after
Congress passed a modest improvement in auto mileage standards.
California’s landmark greenhouse emissions law would have forced even
higher standards in the stage. The EPA leadership, brushing aside the
agency’s staff, seemed to be doing what the auto and fuel industries
wanted–to all appearances at the bidding of the White House.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the committee overseeing Jackson’s nomination, was key in seeking evidence that the White House ordered the EPA to deny California its clean air waiver. She said to Jackson today:
"When you say science and the rule of law, it
sounds funny but it’s music to our ears."
Science and law. What a concept.