Forest fires like those we see sweeping the Southland today are a collateral piece of damage from an environment that has grown more vulnerable through overdevelopment, neglect, and the continued harm from climate change.  There is no question that a hotter, drier climate makes the land more susceptible to wildfires which can expand and change direction in a split second.  We have had drought-like conditions all year in Southern California, which makes things worse.  The state has made efforts to reverse this pattern through strict regulation of tailpipe emissions, but has been stymied by a slow-walk from the EPA, who since December 2005 has refused to grant the waiver necessary to make this regulation law.  On Wednesday, California’s patience will run out, and they will sue the Bush Administration over this obstructionism.  The US Supreme Court has already ruled that states can regulate greenhouse gas emissions, now the EPA must relent and allow the states to govern their own regions in the manner they see fit.

This is more than an abstract concept.  We’re talking about lives and property and untold destruction.  And this lawsuit will hopefully spur Senate Environmental Committee Chair Barbara Boxer to move quickly at the federal level on a global warming bill that is not a massive giveaway to coal companies, but which takes definable steps to solve the problem.  Fortunately, there is real movement toward a carbon-neutral future and away from the delaying tactics and greenwashed “solutions” that have characterized the past decade.  The terrible fires today should be a powerful reminder of what we must do for a better environment in California and around the world.

Not that I think Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Democrat or anything, but he, along with the full force of the statewide elected leadership, is pushing the EPA hard to allow the state’s greenhouse gas emission controls on vehicles to go forward.  The Supreme Court has already ruled that the EPA can regulate greenhouse gas emissions, yet the EPA is dragging its feet on giving permission to California and the other states lined up behind us.  Attorney General Jerry Brown was impassioned on this issue when meeting with regulators in Washington this week.

“This is more important than any issue that EPA’s going to have to face,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown told regulators who will recommend whether to give California the waiver it needs to implement its emissions law.

Brown asked the hearing panel to take a message to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

“We want him to speak truth to power,” said Brown. “There is a tremendous influence of the oil industry. We know (Vice President) Cheney and (President) Bush are oilmen, they think like oil folks. … We say grant the waiver.”

This would be the most sweeping law regulating vehicle emissions in our nation’s history (and it was passed in 2002, pre-Mr. Green Hummer, folks), and would lead to an 18% reduction in greenhouse gases in our atmosphere due to cars by 2020.

To his credit, Schwarzenegger (along with Brown) has vowed to sue the EPA if they don’t act on this by October.  And he and Connecticut’s Jodi Rell penned a strong op-ed in the Sunday Washington Post about the issue (on the flip):

It’s bad enough that the federal government has yet to take the threat of global warming seriously, but it borders on malfeasance for it to block the efforts of states such as California and Connecticut that are trying to protect the public’s health and welfare […]

Since transportation accounts for one-third of America’s greenhouse gas emissions, enacting these standards would be a huge step forward in our efforts to clean the environment and would show the rest of the world that our nation is serious about fighting global warming […]

By continuing to stonewall California’s request, the federal government is blocking the will of tens of millions of people in California, Connecticut and other states who want their government to take real action on global warming.

If this doesn’t happen, by the way, it’s because the President signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to “continue studying” global warming until the end of 2008 (hey, that coincides with the end of his term!), which may stall any action.  Though this is a partisan blog, I think we can all agree that this is a noble effort to get the EPA to do the job the Supreme Court told it to do just one month ago, and grant the permission under the Clean Air Act to let California regulate vehicles the way it demands.  The health of our planet is at stake, and we must see action on this soon. 

You can contact the EPA yourself here.

(Now cross-posted at MyDD for your reading pleasure. : ) – promoted by atdleft)

“A reduction in domestic emissions would slow the pace of global emissions increases, no matter what happens elsewhere,” Justice John Paul Stevens said in the majority opinion. “EPA has offered no reasoned explanation for its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change.”

Apparently, Justice Stevens was not the only Supreme who thinks that the EPA has a responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. There were four others who agreed with him.

(Follow me after the flip for more…)

From the AP Wire via Huffington Post:

The Supreme Court rebuked the Bush administration Monday for its inaction on global warming in a decision that could encourage faster action in Congress on climate change and lead to more fuel-efficient cars as early as next year.

The court, in a 5-4 ruling in its first case on climate change, declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate those emissions from new cars and trucks under the landmark environment law, and the “laundry list” of reasons it has given for declining to do so are insufficient, the court said.

So what does this mean? Well, Bush will not be able to get away with inaction any longer. Also, I’m sure that this will assist the efforts in Congress to combat the coming climate catastrophe. Now that the EPA has a responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, why not allow Congress to decide how exactly to do this?

And oh yes, this is a huge boost for California, as well as ten other states who also want to regulate tailpipe emissions. Now that the EPA has a responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, they might want to take another look at approving these state programs to hold the automakers accountable for producing cars that don’t completely annihilate our planet sooner.

So will this ruling give Democratic Congressional leaders a new opportunity to get Congress to take action on climate change? Will this ruling force Bush to act on the coming climate catastrophe? Will this give a legal boost to California’s trail-blazing law to regulate tailpipe emissions? Well, I guess all we know now is that the only place left in this nation that continues to deny reality on climate change is the White House.