The Environmental Un-Protection Agency
It is a wild and wacky world we live in. I'm in Phoenix these days, visiting my family, and there's this story on the front page of the Arizona Republic (which I used to deliver on my bicycle).
OK -- this story has been growing over the past few weeks, I'm just blogging it because ... I'm in Arizona, I'm from Arizona, and now it's a local story here where I am.
This is the Environment Protection Agency, forcing states to mess up the environment. Does that make sense to you? Let me put it this way: this is the Bush administration, forcing states to mess up the environment. See, now it makes perfectly good sense.
I mean ... think about that. The administration is forcing states to not-protect the environment.
The deal is, this is the kind of thing that happens every day, we don't even give this a thought any more. You can't even keep up with all the ways the present administration has found to make the world an uglier, worse place.
Yes: appalling.
Arizona on Wednesday joined California and 14 other states in suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a December decision that blocked the states from imposing strict new limits on tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks.
The suit sets up a legal showdown between the federal agency charged with protecting the environment and states, including Arizona, that would like to impose tougher tailpipe standards than those overseen by the EPA.
At stake are state efforts to combat global warming by reining in automobile exhaust, considered Arizona's largest single contributor of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases. Arizona joins multistate lawsuit against EPA: Agency blocked tougher auto-emissions standards
OK -- this story has been growing over the past few weeks, I'm just blogging it because ... I'm in Arizona, I'm from Arizona, and now it's a local story here where I am.
This is the Environment Protection Agency, forcing states to mess up the environment. Does that make sense to you? Let me put it this way: this is the Bush administration, forcing states to mess up the environment. See, now it makes perfectly good sense.
I mean ... think about that. The administration is forcing states to not-protect the environment.
The deal is, this is the kind of thing that happens every day, we don't even give this a thought any more. You can't even keep up with all the ways the present administration has found to make the world an uglier, worse place.
Arizona officials had already said their efforts to prepare tougher tailpipe standards would continue, and Wednesday's lawsuit was expected. It was filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"We will continue to move forward and will continue to work with California and the other states because, quite frankly, it's appalling that the EPA continues to stand in the way," Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said.
Yes: appalling.
posted by JimK at 5:52 PM
2 Comments:
...Twelve other states — Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — have adopted the California emissions standards.
The governors of Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah have said they also plan to adopt them. The rules also are under consideration in Iowa.
"(EPA officials) are ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "That's why, at the very first legal opportunity, we're suing to reverse the U.S. EPA's wrong decision."...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22474944/
From the link:
"Napolitano's plans to help stem those emissions were dealt a setback Dec. 19 when EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson sided with automakers in opposing the emissions proposal put forth by the states. He said the push by California and the other states could result in a confusing patchwork of state-by-state emissions rules. Johnson also called the stricter state regulations unnecessary in light of a new federal energy bill that ups vehicle fuel efficiency."
Thanks for bringing this to light.
Unbelievable.
Post a Comment
<< Home