Editorial: Curbing air pollution

Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007 | 1:26 a.m.

Last week a federal judge upheld Vermont's right to adopt California's tough restrictions on tailpipe emissions, striking down virtually every argument automakers have made against imposing tougher emissions standards.

U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III issued the ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit that automakers had filed against the state of Vermont, which recently adopted the emissions standards set forth in a 2002 California law.

The federal Clean Air Act specifically gives California the authority to set its own emissions standards and allows other states to adopt California's standards, which are more strict than federal ones. However, the Environmental Protection Agency must first grant a waiver to California before it or any state can implement tougher standards.

And the EPA has yet to issue such a waiver to California, despite the fact that the waiver request was made in December 2005, and that in April the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emitted by motor vehicles.

Sessions' decision was in regard to Vermont's standards and not about California's. Nonetheless, his ruling roundly dismisses the claims by automakers that adopting stricter standards is not feasible.

Automakers, Sessions wrote, failed to demonstrate that Vermont's standards "will limit consumer choice, create economic hardship for the automobile industry, cause significant job loss or undermine safety." He also said that the auto industry is technologically capable of creating vehicles that pollute less.

Still, Vermont and other states that want to follow California's lead must wait until the EPA stops dragging its feet and grants California the waiver it requested nearly two years ago.

It is a shame that states are having to do this at all. Strengthening emissions standards for the nation's motor vehicles is the federal government's job, but the Bush administration is unwilling to do it, as it caters to its friends in the auto industry. Bush's ability to ignore - to deny, even - the effects of global warming is embarrassing and irresponsible.