Obama May Reverse Bush Policy on Denial of Emissions Waiver

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By Sean McNally and Eric Miller, Staff Reporters

Reversing Bush administration policies, including its denial of California’s request for a waiver allowing the state to regulate automobile greenhouse-gas emissions, could be high on President-elect Barack Obama’s agenda in January, some observers said.

Obama has said his first order of business will be reviving the U.S. economy, but he also has said he wants to increase energy supplies and stem global warming.

During his campaign, Obama said he would grant a waiver from federal pre-emption of vehicle carbon emissions regulatory limits that California and other states have sought.

“I’m not sure exactly what kind of legal hoops he’s going to have to go through, but I have little doubt that he would want to do that,” Frank

O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said of granting the California waiver. “I think it would be a strong signal to the country that he’s serious about global warming.”

The Bush administration denied a request by California and 18 other states to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. The California rules call for a 30% reduction in global warming-related pollutants by 2016, a much more aggressive schedule than rules proposed by the Bush administration, which is in the process of enacting new fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles.

Julie Sauls, a spokeswoman for the California Trucking Association, said granting the waiver, while not directly affecting trucking, would embolden state environmental regulators.

“California already is on a path of very aggressive emissions reduction,” Sauls said.

“I’m not going to preview decisions that he has yet to make,” John Podesta, head of Obama’s transition team, told Bloomberg News. “But I would say that as a candidate, Sen. Obama said that he wanted all the Bush executive orders reviewed, and decide which ones should be kept, and which ones should be repealed, and which ones should be amended.”

As a candidate, Obama chided the Environmental Protection Agency for its decision to deny California’s request and said, “If the courts do not overturn this decision, I will after I am elected president.”

Obama also co-sponsored a bill introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that would direct EPA to grant California a waiver under the Clean Air Act to cut pollution from motor vehicles. Boxer is chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

“Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer,” Obama said Jan. 25.

Other possible orders an Obama administration could review are ones that allow oil and gas drilling on federal lands and off U.S. coasts.

Beyond reviewing the orders, Obama said he was pushing for a renewed round of stimulus funding to help boost the flagging economy.

“I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States,” Obama said in his first press conference since the election.

Stimulus legislation could include money for road building.

Obama said he backs more infrastructure spending and an aid package for the auto industry, but he also said it was up to the Bush administration and Congress to act now.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.