Rewarding Good Behavior: Arnold And Tail-pipe Emissions

California passed tough tail-pipe emissions standards, but we need a waiver from the EPA to actually enact them. The Supreme Court says that they need to address the issue. Today, Arnold and fellow Republican Governor Jodi Rell from Conneticut took the Bush Administration to task in an op-ed appearing in the Washington Post. It is a good one.

Another discouraging sign came just last week, when President Bush issued an executive order to give federal agencies until the end of 2008 to continue studying the threat of greenhouse gas emissions and determine what can be done about them.

To us, that again sounds like more of the same inaction and denial, and it is unconscionable.

Under the Clean Air Act, California has the right to enact its own air pollution standards, which other states may then follow, as long as the EPA grants California a waiver. The waiver gives California, and other states, formal permission to deviate from federal standards. California has requested more than 40 such waivers over the past 30 years and has been granted full or partial permission for most of them.

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.

The EPA is finally holding the first of two hearings on the waiver request tomorrow, and we welcome the opportunity to call attention to the harmful effects that global warming is having on people and the environment.

But we are far from convinced that the agency intends to follow the law and grant us our waiver.

The fact that two Republican Governors are going to these great lengths to lobby the Bush Administration is impressive. Bush is dragging his feet on the subject and they are responding very publicly with their displeasure. The governors are threatening to take even more legal action, if they do not issue a ruling in their favor. Like Arnold says, it is time for Bush to get out of the way of progress. This type of rhetoric and threats coming from the same party is extremely useful in the big picture of the global warming fight.