The Washington Post reports today that Barack Obama intends to reverse around 200 of the Bush administration’s most egregious actions and executive orders—ASAP. Among those considered high on the list is George Bush’s refusal to allow California to regulate auto emissions within the state.
The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration’s decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. “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 in January.
California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight years. Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California’s rules, representing in total 45 percent of the nation’s automobile market. Environmentalists cheered the California initiative because it would stoke innovation that would potentially benefit the entire country.
“An early move by the Obama administration to sign the California waiver would signal the seriousness of intent to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and build a future for the domestic auto market,” said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
May it be so.
(It’s hard not to want to keep pinching one’s self at the notion of actually having a president who seems so….sane.)
Great. YOUR costs are going up…costs that aren’t essential. That should help car sales and the economy. If you think his proposals do help, then you need to change your Master’s major to economics.
Woody, our costs in Cal already are high due to our higher emissions standards, which most people agree are a good thing because pollution and smog are NOT good things. That’s pretty much apolitical except for some rightwing diehards who insist there is no human impact on pollution or the ecology. But the Bushies have overturned Calif’s attempts to legislate that trucks and cargo ships etc. coming into the state to do business be held to comparable standards — these trucks come and go day and night back and forth across the country, creating very significantly negative impacts on our pollution and overall air quality.
They have a relatively small investment to make to be able to continue their very profitable routes. Since Calif. ports account for over half the national incoming goods and the road traffic is correspondingly high, this has been a huge problem — Celeste can no doubt provide the stats in increased asthma and smog-related illness and death among those living closest to ports and major trucking routes, especially kids and frail elderly. That’s just one example. Go ahead and bash Arnold for being a girlie-Republican on these environmental issues — you get no sympathy on that one. The Lush Rimbaughs can go suck some exhaust pipes arguing that one.
We have something called interstate commerce that is controlled by the federal government–one of its original and worthwhile functions. California cannot put a duty or environmnental tsx on vehicles coming into the state from another one. I lived in a steel town before environmentalism was cool, so I know about lung illnesses, but I can’t believe that interstate commerce is a major factor in your problems–especially since most of the state isn’t like L.A.