R.I., Mass. join other states in EPA lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO – California has filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appealing the ruling last month that barred states from enforcing vehicle emissions rules that are stricter than the federal standard. It was joined in the suit by Rhode Island, Massachusetts and 13 other states that have adopted, or plan to adopt, the California “Clean Cars” carbon-emissions standards.
The Clean Cars standards would have required that vehicles cut carbon emissions faster and by greater amounts than the federal rules signed into law last month by President George W. Bush. For instance, they would require fleet fuel efficiency of 44 miles per gallon by 2020, rather than the 35 mpg of the federal rules, Calif. Air Resources Board chief Mary Nichols said in a conference call, according to Bloomberg News.
Under the federal Clean Air Act, California is granted the power to enact air pollution standards for automobiles that can be stricter than the federal standards; other states may then adopt either the California or federal standards. The California standards take effect only after the EPA grants the state a waiver – something that, in the past, the agency had done routinely.
On Dec. 19, however, the EPA denied California’s request for such a waiver, preventing any state from implementing the state’s 2004 Clean Cars standards. &middot