Bush Backs EPA on California Waiver Denial

President Bush defended the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to reject California’s plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, saying that a national strategy toward climate change is more effective than a state-by-state approach, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The president signed energy legislation into law Wednesday that will boost automobile mileage standards to 35 mpg by 2020, and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson denied California’s request to implement its own standards, the Times said on its Web site Thursday.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said in a statement Thursday that the state will sue to overturn the EPA ruling “as quickly as possible. EPA’s denial of our waiver request to enact the nation’s cleanest standards for vehicle emissions is legally indefensible and another example of the failure to treat climate change with the seriousness it demands.”

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in April that greenhouse gases were considered air pollutants and that their fell under the purview of the federal government.

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