PCAP - Presidential Climate Action Project

(A) the determination of the State is arbitrary and capricious,(B) such State does not need such State standards to meet compelling andextraordinary conditions, or(C) such State standards and accompanying enforcement procedures arenot consistent with section 7521(a) of this title. 208Section 7521(a) authorizes the EPA Administrator to prescribe by regulation emission standardsfor new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines.In 2005, California requested a preemption waiver from the EPA in order to put tougherstandards into effect. 209 Subsequent to this request, and in anticipation of the waiver beinggranted, approximately 17 states have submitted to the EPA requests to adopt this standard. OnDecember 19, 2007, two years after the request was made, the EPA set forth the Agency’s intentto deny California’s waiver request. 210 On February 29, 2008, the EPA Administrator signed aFederal Register Notice Denying a Waiver of Clean Air Act Preemption for California’s 2009and Subsequent Model Year Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for New Motor Vehicles. Thisis the first time the EPA has denied a waiver request under the CAA.Until this decision, the EPA had granted all 50 previous waiver requests over the last 40 years.California is appealing the decision in federal court. 211 A number of other States have joined inthe Petition.The Administrator found that California does not need the state standards to meet compellingand extraordinary conditions pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7543 b(1)(B). 212 The decision was basedon the global nature of climate change. The Administrator concludes as follows:I have concluded that section 209(b) was intended to allow California topromulgate state standards applicable to emissions from new motor vehiclesto address pollution problems that are local or regional. I do not believesection 209(b)(1)(B) was intended to allow California to promulgate statestandards for emissions from new motor vehicles designed to address globalclimate change problems; nor, in the alternative, do I believe that the effects208 42 U.S.C. § 7543(b).209 Request for Waiver of Federal Preemption, 72 Fed. Reg. 21260 (2007).210 73 CFR 12,156, California State Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Standards; Notice of Decision Denying aWaiver of Clean Air Act Preemption for California’s 2009 and Subsequent Model Year Greenhouse Gas EmissionStandards for New Motor Vehicles (Mar. 6, 2008), available at: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/ca-waiver.htm; copy ofLetter from EPA Administrator to California Governor available at: http://www.cleancarscampaign.org/webcontent/newsroom/docs/121907_EPALetter.pdf.211 On January 2, 2008, in separate petitions, California and 15 states—plus five environmental organizations—asked a federal court to reverse the December 19, 2007 U.S. EPA decision denying California a waiver to implementits Clean Cars law. The petitions were filed in the 9th Circuit of Appeals. Petition, California v. EPA, (9th Cir. filedJanuary 2, 2008), available at http://www.cleancarscampaign.org/web-content/cleanairact/docs/n1514_epapetition-1.pdf.212 73 CFR 12,156.CEES 50 | P age