Editorial: Real enforcement needed

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

President Bush is threatening to veto an energy bill now before Congress if the bill gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to enforce new vehicle mileage standards that are designed to lower carbon dioxide emissions.

The bill, which the House has passed and the Senate is considering, would require auto manufacturers to meet an average fleet standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2030. The measure, however, does not say which federal agency would be in charge of enforcing the new standard.

As The New York Times reported Wednesday, mileage standards have historically been under the jurisdiction of the Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But the EPA regulates emissions from vehicle tailpipes, and the new mileage standards are being considered as a means of lowering tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to the acceleration of global warming.

The Bush administration, which has been reluctant to hold human activity accountable for global warming, wants the transportation administration to be in charge of enforcing the new standards and the EPA to serve in only an advisory role. Not surprisingly, this is the stance favored by automakers and other industry groups.

Because mileage standards are very much about lowering carbon dioxide emissions - over which the EPA has regulatory control - it only makes sense that the EPA be in charge of enforcing any new standards. The agency has the scientific expertise needed to adequately monitor tailpipe emissions and mileage standards that control them.

Bush and the industry interests to whom he is exasperatingly loyal want transportation officials to be in charge because they know the enforcement likely won't be as scientifically strict.

The White House's stubborn stance against effective oversight of U.S. mileage standards is yet one more example of just how little Bush wants to do about lowering greenhouse gas levels and crafting a comprehensive, and environmentally sound, energy policy.