Get in Gear

Feds dragging their feet on auto emission standards.

It was springtime of 2005, and the Washington Legislature was basking in much-deserved praise for a session that included adoption of California's tough auto-emission standards. Now we're just hours away from fall 2007 and the promise of that session is as cloudy as our view of the Cascades on a bad-air day.

Under that bill more than two years ago, 2009 model-year cars and light trucks sold in the state are required to emit 30 percent less carbon dioxide, 20 percent fewer toxic pollutants and as much as 20 percent fewer smog-causing pollutants than federal regulations allow.

But there was an aspect of the new law that didn't get a lot of publicity. It would kick in only after the California law took effect, and that couldn't happen until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted California a waiver allowing it to exceed federal standards.

The 2009 model year begins about this time next year and the Bush administration has not acted on the California waiver application. The delay also adversely affects Oregon, which followed Washington with its own law, giving the three West Coast states uniform emission standards.

So, this week the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, which represents several environmental groups, notified the EPA that it will file suit against it in 180 days if the administration doesn't act on the waiver request.

"Consumers throughout the U.S. have made it clear that they want cleaner vehicles and now it is up to the federal government to facilitate, rather than stymie, climate solutions," the group said.

The EPA says it hasn't acted yet because it is wading through public comments on the issue. But this isn't something that suddenly dropped out of the sky on the EPA. It ought to get it in gear, fast.