FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

West Coast Environmental Groups Renounce EPA’s Decision Denying Waiver

CONTACT (see complete contact list at end of release):

        Dan Galpern, Staff Attorney, Western Environmental
        Law Center 541-485-2471, galpern@westernlaw.org

West Coast Environmental Groups Renounce
EPA’s Decision Denying Waiver

Conservation groups today renounced the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reject California’s request to enact its own tailpipe greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards.

“EPA’s rejection of the waiver is contrary to law and will not stand,” stated Dan Galpern, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center who, on behalf of conservation organizations in California, Oregon and Washington, intervened on the side of California in its recent federal lawsuit to compel EPA action. “As a legal matter under the Clean Air Act, EPA has no basis for denying the waiver request. The state tailpipe GHG standards are protective of public health, rationally based, economically attainable, and consistent with the purposes of the Clean Air Act. Unless Congress acts first to reverse EPA’s arbitrary decision, we will challenge it in federal court.”

California brought suit after EPA refused, for over two years, to act on its request. To combat global warming, California adopted tough GHG tailpipe emission limits in 2004. Oregon and Washington adopted those standards in 2005. Thirteen other states have also adopted or are poised to adopt California’s emission reduction program: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“States are supposed to be laboratories of innovation, and that’s just what California and others are trying to do in the fight against global warming,” said Danielle Fugere, Regional Program Director of Friends of the Earth. “But the Bush administration, apparently not content to block progress at the federal level, is trying to hold back states’ progress too. They justify their denial by citing to the recently passed CAFE limit, a standard based on political compromise, not what is truly necessary to protect the public from global warming." The tragedy is that -- given past CAFE history -- we are likely to be locked into this standard for another 32 years."

"This is extremely disappointing,” stated Bill LaBorde, Environment Washington Program Director. It is, however, “not surprising, given the Bush administration's stubborn lack of any serious response to addressing climate change. This decision also shows a blatant disregard for the directive from the US Supreme Court to reduce global warming pollution from autos under the federal Clean Air Act."

That blatant disregard has severe worldwide consequences.

According to Kassie Siegel, Climate, Air, and Energy Program Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, "Literally hundreds of thousands of the Earth's plants and animals are imperiled by global warming. Species such as the polar bear, completely dependent upon the rapidly melting sea-ice and already drowning and starving due to global warming, will be the first to go. The Bush Administration's continued sabotage of common-sense measures to reduce greenhouse gas pollution such as California's Clean Vehicle Law is a death warrant for these species."

Already, climate change impacts are felt at the state and local level.

"Global warming is already harming Oregon's fish, wildlife, and wild places, and we can't afford to wait for the Bush administration to get their act together," said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director for Oregon Wild. “EPA’s decision today will only cost us critical time in the fight to stop global warming."

Contacts:

Dan Galpern, Staff Attorney
Western Environmental Law Center
(541) 485-2471
galpern@westernlaw.org

Steve Pedery, Conservation Director
Oregon Wild (formerly Oregon Natural Resources Council)
(503) 283-6343 ext. 212
sp@oregonwild.org

Bill LaBorde, Program Director
Environment Washington
206.568.2850, ext. 101
blaborde@environmentwashington.org
Danielle R. Fugere, Regional Program Director
Friends of the Earth
(415) 544-0790 x15
dfugere@bluewaternetwork.org

Kassie R. Siegel, Climate, Air, and Energy Program Director
Center for Biological Diversity
(760) 366-2232 x.302
ksiegel@biologicaldiversity.org
Michael Mayer, Legal Director
Washington Environmental Council
(206) 631-2604
michael@wecprotects.org

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