FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EPA Stalling West Coast States’ Efforts to Limit Greenhouse Gases

Public Interest Groups Take Legal Action to Force EPA’s Compliance with the Law

      Contact: Dan Galpern Western Environmental Law
                      Center, 541-485-2471

On behalf of environmental and conservation organizations and individuals in Oregon, Washington, and California, the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) today issued a Notice of Intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its unreasonable delay in deciding whether to approve California’s request to implement its vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits program. See Notice of Intent, attached.

 
California’s vehicle GHG emission limits program was adopted in 2004.1 The state sought the requisite waiver of federal pre-emption, under section 209(b) of the Clean Air Act, in December 2005. Oregon and Washington adopted the California program in 2005.2  Nearly two years later, the EPA has failed to act on California’s waiver request.3 Unless EPA grants the waiver, the program in California along with those in Oregon, Washington, and nine other so-called “opt-in” states cannot be enforced.4

 
WELC attorney Dan Galpern noted that “EPA declines to regulate greenhouse gas emissions directly, and refuses to let states implement their own limits. The Agency obviously is reticent about rejecting the waiver request outright because the Clean Air Act is clear that EPA is required to issue the waiver where, as here, the state standard is more protective of public health than federal law. So EPA delays and dallies, an unconscionable tactic given the risk it imposes on our common future.”

 
Initiatives to reduce GHG emissions from vehicles constitute one of several key mitigation measures identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to arrest the projected growth of global GHG emissions. If allowed to go into effect, by 2016 the program adopted by California, Oregon, Washington, and several other states will reduce fleet average GHG emissions from new passenger cars and light trucks by more than a third. According to K.C. Golden, of Climate Solutions, “vehicle emissions are one of the largest sources of global warming pollution in Washington and Oregon, as in other states. Limiting this pollution is one of the most effective and economically attractive climate solutions available to us.”

 
The vehicle GHG limits at issue require automakers to restrict emissions commencing with their 2009 model year vehicles. A given model year begins as early as January 2 of the previous calendar year. Accordingly, EPA’s delay into 2008 may impede state efforts to regulate 2009 model-year GHG emissions. If EPA further strings out the issue until the end of the Bush administration, state efforts to limit vehicle GHG emissions could be delayed until 2011 model year vehicles are in place.

 
In comments conveyed to the Environmental Protection Agency in June, the represented organizations warned that present trends of increasing atmospheric GHG concentrations likely will result in severe impacts to west coast states. Oregon and Washington, for example, are likely to experience shifting isotherms and changes in vegetation zones, rising sea levels, a declining snowpack, warmer stream and river temperatures, and an increase in drought stress rendering forests more vulnerable to insect infestation, disease, and fire.5

 
"For over three decades, we have worked to protect old-growth forests, pristine wildlands, and healthy rivers and streams," said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director of Oregon Wild. "Oregon's natural heritage faces a growing threat in global warming, and we are joining this court case to protect the fish, wildlife, and wild places that define our state."

 
In California, continuation of present trends likely will lead to a loss of up to 90 percent of Sierra snowpack during the next century, sea water intrusion into the state’s delta and levee systems, and forest fires of increasing intensity and frequency.6 Massive species losses are likely. “Not only polar bears, but thousands of other species – including many in west coast states – are headed towards extinction, and further delay ensures only catastrophe,” said Kassie Siegel, Climate, Air, and Energy Program Director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Bush administration has blocked progress for too long, and must be forced to give a green light immediately to California’s greenhouse gas pollution reduction plan for vehicles.”

 
Today’s action by Oregon, Washington, and California organizations follows last week’s stinging defeat for auto-industry litigants that challenged the California program.7 A federal judge in Vermont declined to nullify that state’s adoption of California’s program holding that, contrary to industry assertions, the vehicle GHG limits are neither pre-empted by the federal Environmental Policy and Conservation Act nor by the U.S. government’s exclusive foreign policy role. By extension, Vermont and other states are free to opt-in to the California program.

 
According to WELC attorney Galpern, “the EPA is running out of excuses. In April, the Supreme Court said that greenhouse gases are pollutants that the federal government has valid authority to restrict.8 Last week the Vermont court held that California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to restrict vehicle GHG emissions is not pre-empted by other federal law. Today, we demand that EPA, at long last, unleash the states so that they can enforce their own serious efforts to mitigate climate change.”

 
The Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) is a nonprofit public interest law firm that works to protect and restore wildlands and natural resources and advocates for a healthy environment on behalf of communities throughout the West. Impending climate change directly threatens these lands, resources, and communities. Accordingly, WELC is assuming leadership by taking legal action aimed at mitigating climate change.

 
1 See Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 13, § 1961.1 (2007).
2 Wash. Rev. Code § 70.120A.010 (2005); Or. Admin. R. 340-257-0010 (2005).
3 Today’s action adds to the weight of earlier notices of intent to sue for undue delay filed by California and several national environmental groups.
4 In addition to the three West Coast states, nine other states -- Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont -- have adopted California’s limits pursuant to section 177 of the Clean Air Act.
5 Comments to EPA from Western Environmental Law Center, on behalf of 18 Oregon and Washington
environmental, energy, and conservation organizations (June 15, 2007), attached.
6 Comments to EPA from Center for Biological Diversity (June 15, 2007).
7 Green Mountain Chrysler v. Crombie, No. 2:05-cv-302, cv-304 (D. Vt. filed Sept. 12, 2007) at
www.vtd.uscourts.gov/Supporting%20Files/Cases/05cv302.pdf.
8 Massachusetts v. EPA, 127 S. Ct. 1438 (2007).

###