The Bush Administration’s Department of Transportation proposal to raise fuel economy rates faster than Congress mandated last fall comes with a catch – obliterating California’s proposal to regulate tailpipe emissions.  Think Progress has the relevant passage in the report.

(b) As a state regulation related to fuel economy standards, any state regulation regulating tailpipe

carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles is expressly preempted under 49 U.S.C. 32919.

(c) A state regulation regulating tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, particularly a regulation that is not attribute-based and does not separately regulate passenger cars and light trucks, conflicts with:

1. The fuel economy standards in this Part

2. The judgments made by the agency in establishing those standards, and

3. The achievement of the objectives of the statute (49 U.S.C. Chapter 329)

This actually changes little in the near term.  The EPA has already denied California a waiver to regulate their own emissions, a ruling that is under court appeal.  And the Supreme Court has already ruled on the belief that gas mileage standards and greenhouse gas emissions are separate, and that the states may act to regulate the latter.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and a coalition of governors have acted swiftly:

NHTSA has no authority to preempt states from regulating greenhouse gases.  Congress and two federal district courts have rejected NHTSA’s claim to such authority.  Furthermore, this attack completely undermines the cooperative federalism principles embodied in the Clean Air Act, and is an end run around 40 years of precedent under that law.

Our states intend to comment on the proposed rulemaking and, if necessary, will sue NHTSA, just as California and other states have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure that states retain the right to reduce global climate change emissions…

It just adds to the extreme hackitude that has characterized this Administration’s actions on global warming.  We learned this week that over half of all EPA scientists have “experienced incidents of political interference in their work.”  Now the Department of Transportation gets added to the list.

Congressional Democrats are now trying to move legislation that would overturn the EPA’s anti-scientific decision which denied California a waiver to regulate their own tailpipe emissions.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is suing the EPA.  It seems that the only group of people who aren’t on board with this policy are Republican members of Congress.

Most GOP members of the state’s congressional delegation are siding with the Bush administration in trying to keep states from imposing stricter regulations on greenhouse gas emissions than the federal government. Without bipartisan support from the state’s representatives, the bill’s proponents say, the measure’s prospects are dim.

“I don’t support California thinking that it can act alone effectively,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), noting that climate change is a problem that extends beyond state lines.

A House bill to allow California and other states to implement their own tailpipe regulations was introduced last week, with the support of 27 of the 33 California Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. Only two of the 19 Republicans — Rep. David Dreier of San Dimas, who is perhaps Schwarzenegger’s closest ally in the delegation, and Rep. Mary Bono Mack of Palm Springs — signed on as cosponsors.

In addition to Issa, John Campbell, Kevin McCarthy, George Radanovich, Devin Nunes and Wally Herger are quoted, all saying a variation of how global warming is a big problem and we have to have a unified solution.  Of course, 18 other states are signing on to California’s lawsuit, representing a majority of the population who actually wants to do something abut climate change.  

I really think this has the potential of politically isolating the GOP.  It’s notable that Dreier and Bono Mack understand that their districts are becoming more purplish, and that they need to stay out in front of them.  But the combination of hypocrisy among the state’s rights crowd and being on the wrong side of popular opinion (most California Republicans favor granting the waiver) and scientific rationality could make for a powerful wedge.  We know that people are finally starting to drive less.  Utilities are starting to block production of any and all coal-fired power plants.  And there’s a growing recognition that this is a public health issue as much as it is an environmental issue.  Those who are standing in the way of renewable projects, alternative energy solutions, and yes, government mandates to solve the problem are dinosaurs.  At the Congressional level, I believe this vote will resonate in November.

Incidentally, if you want to see some of that post-partisan leadership in action, check it out:

Schwarzenegger spokesman Bill Maile said the governor supports the legislation. By allowing California to implement “the nation’s toughest tailpipe regulations,” he said, “it will help us achieve our aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gases.” But a number of California Republicans in Congress say that they have yet to hear from Schwarzenegger or his office.

Way to put the pressure on, Guv.

Just a few things to get you through the weekend:

• If you’re interested in helping Barack Obama but aren’t flying to Ohio or Texas like Brian and Julia, the Obama campaign is urging supporters in California to make phone calls into Texas this weekend.  MoveOn is also running Yes We Can parties on Saturday and Sunday.

• Let’s not give the Governor a heap of credit just yet for accepting the Legislative Analyst’s suggestions to close billions of dollars in tax loopholes.  According to the Sacramento Bee he ran away from this proposal within a matter of hours.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told business leaders Thursday he supports a proposal by nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill to rescind $2.7 billion in tax credits, but he later softened that stance and said he doesn’t necessarily support all of her recommendations.

The Governor will be in Columbus this weekend for the Arnold Classic, an annual bodybuilding and fitness event, so if you get a minute, Juls, you can go ask him about this yourself!

• Tired of being bashed with the facts over the past several weeks, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has come out swinging, defending his decision to deny the California waiver to regulate tailpipe emissions on the grounds that global warming is a global problem.  Which means, of course, we need to do less to fight it.  Also today the EPA turned over documents related to their decision, months after they were requested.

• On a somewhat different note, I’m interested in this protest by the environmental justice community against cap-and-trade solutions such as what is promised in California as unfair to low-income communities, which are disproportionately affected by polluting industries that would be able to buy their way into continuing to pollute those areas.  

EJ groups, long overlooked in the more mainstream environmental movement, fear that climate legislation will once again disregard the concerns of the communities who are already most affected by the factories and refineries responsible for global warming. In a cap-and-trade system, poor communities, where polluting plants are most often sited, will still bear the brunt of impacts if industries are allowed to trade for rights to pollute there. Instead of this system, they’re advocating a carbon tax, direct emissions reductions, and meaningful measures to move America to clean, renewable energy sources.

“[C]arbon trading is undemocratic because it allows entrenched polluters, market designers, and commodity traders to determine whether and where to reduce greenhouse gases and co-pollutant emissions without allowing impacted communities or governments to participate in those decisions,” says the statement.

I think it’s a powerful argument, and something the environmental movement has to seriously consider.  If we’re going to allow polluting industries to pollute, there will be an adverse affect.  How do we deal with that?

• In yet another reason why we should not allow the continued consolidation of media, new LA Times owner Sam Zell has now taken to the airwaves, blaming the coming recession on… Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talking about the coming recession.  Yeah, shut up already!  This is the owner of the largest paper in California requesting what amounts to censorship, incidentally.

• Finally, a federal judge in San Francisco today lifted the injunction on the Wikileaks website, which allowed whistleblowers to post documents and anonymous information about government and corporate malfeasance.  A win for the First Amendment and the public interest.

Add your own links in the comments.  

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s digging into documents on the decision by the EPA not to issue a waiver to California so we can regulate tailpipe emissions is bearing some serious fruit.  The EPA staff went to great lengths to try and persuade the Bush lacky Steven L. Johnson not to overrule them and precedent and deny California the right to reduce greenhouse gases in our state.  LAT:

Some officials at the Environmental Protection Agency were so worried their boss would deny California permission to implement its own global-warming law that they worked with a former EPA chief to try to persuade the current administrator to grant the state’s request.

That unusual effort was revealed by documents released Tuesday by congressional investigators probing whether EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson was swayed by political pressure when he decided not to allow California to enact vehicle emission standards stricter than the federal government’s.

They actually even supplied him with talking points to lobby Johnson with. (flip it)

One of the newly released documents features “talking points” prepared by an agency staff member for former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly to help him build the case for granting California’s request. In the October 2007 memo, the staffer said there was “no legal or technical justification” for the EPA to deny the request. If the agency refused California permission to implement its tailpipe law, the document said, “the credibility of the agency . . . will be irreparably damaged.”

Johnson acted as the Bush Administration’s lapdog.  He dragged out the process as long as possible and then overruled his own staff to deny California the waiver.  Both his legal and scientific advisors urged him to grant our waiver.  The denial was first time the EPA has ever denied a state a waiver under the Clean Air Act.

Unfortunately, we have little recourse until there is a Democrat in the White House.  Court cases to the best of my knowledge are proceeding, but that is a long term process, given the likelihood of appeals.

So Barbara Boxer is not sitting on her heels waiting for a new President, she’s acting boldly to reverse Stephen Johnson’s horrible EPA decision blocking California from regulating tailpipe emissions.

Senate environmental committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has introduced a bill that would overrule EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and instruct him to grant California’s waiver.

Right out of the gate, it’s got bipartisan support. Cosponsors include Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Joseph Lieberman (ID, CT), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), John Kerry (D-MA), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ).

It was fairly certain that litigation would reach the same result, or that a Democratic President would order the EPA to reverse the decision.  But that would take quite a while, and in the interim, the climate deteriorates even further.

By the way, this Johnson character is a first-class nutter:

Shortly before Stephen L. Johnson was sworn in by President Bush as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, he gave the president a towel symbolizing a New Testament passage in which Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. The towel, given to graduates of Johnson’s alma mater, a small evangelical college, symbolizes a life of Christian service.

Like the president, Johnson is a deeply religious man who says he relies on his faith in his work. Johnson prayed and spoke gratefully of early-morning prayer sessions held in his government office in a promotional video filmed there for an offshoot of a worldwide Christian ministry.

We’ll see if Boxer can get what would be a needed 67 votes to overcome a Bush veto.  But good for her for trying to accelerate the process.

Do check out Sean Siperstein at Warming Law’s liveblog of today’s events in the Senate Environment Committee, where Barbara Boxer and others made EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson squirm for quite a while this morning.

The background, including Boxer’s finding that the EPA staff favored the granting to California of the waiver for them to regulate tailpipe emissions, is here and here.  More on today’s session is here and here, including the hilarious admission that the EPA used duct tape to redact documents about their decision-making process.

BOXER: Colleagues, this is the tape, this is the tape that was put over – finally the administration had a way to use duct tape. This administration, this is what they did to us. They put this white tape over the documents and staff had to stand here. It’s just unbelievable. […]

I mean what a waste of our time. This isn’t national security. This isn’t classified information, colleagues. This is information the people deserve to have. And this is not the way we should run the greatest government in the world. It does not befit us. So that’s why I’m worked up about it and think we have been treated in a very shabby way.

Even Lieberman was laying into Johnson on this one.  What an embarrassment.

When we last left EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, his agency was facing a lawsuit from California and over a dozen other states over his failure to grant a waiver allowing tailpipe emission regulation.  It was fairly clear that this decision was wholly political and in no way matching the scientific studies inside the EPA; Johnson’s staff was unanimously opposed to the decision.  Last week, Sen. Boxer chaired a field hearing in Los Angeles to investigate what was behind the denial of the waiver.  Johnson failed to attend.  This is from an email:

California Attorney General Jerry Brown, California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols, the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, the NRDC’s Fran Pavley, and Congresswoman Hilda Solis all appeared as witnesses.  Unfortunately, one chair at the briefing was noticeably empty:  the seat we reserved for EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

Clearly, EPA Administrator Johnson does not want California and 18 other states to implement California’s higher emission standard for automobiles — a key part of our fight against global warming — but the public deserves to know why.  We can’t let Administrator Johnson hide the truth from the American people.

At the hearing, Attorney General Brown called on Boxer to subpoena Johnson and all of the relevant documents that went into the decision.  Boxer is planning a hearing on January 24th with the EPA Administrator, and she’s attempting to use public pressure to get Johnson to release the documents.  She’s asking supporters to forward Johnson this email (over):

Dear Administrator Johnson,

I urge you explain why the EPA denied a request from California and 18 other states to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, and to release all documents surrounding how the decision was made.

You would have us believe that granting California’s waiver request would establish a complicated “patchwork” of state regulation standards. But in reality, 14 other states have joined California and would use our higher standard, and 4 more states intend to do the same.  The national government should encourage — not stymie –the efforts of nineteen states to fight global warming.  

Last year, you told Senator Boxer’s Committee that the EPA needed more time to make a decision on California’s waiver request because it was “performing a rigorous analysis.” However, according to an article in the Washington Post, you ignored the advice of your technical and legal staff and denied our waiver request anyway.

We deserve to know the truth about why, over the unanimous advice of your own technical and legal staffers, you rejected California’s legitimate waiver request — waivers which have been issued 50 times in the past and never denied.

I urge you to explain to the public why you denied California’s waiver request, and release all related documents to reveal how the decision was made.

Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee chair Henry Waxman has also demanded the documents, and is scheduling interviews with EPA employees about Johnson’s decision.  These are two ornery committee chairs that will not let up on the EPA.

Let me also commend Hillary Clinton for being the first Presidential candidate to address this issue, lauding the state’s decision to take the EPA to court.  From the comments, Barack Obama sent out a press release on the EPA decision soon after it was handed down.  And Edwards urged granting of the waiver back in the summer.  There isn’t much daylight between the major candidates on this issue.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Sean from Warming Law has more.