Why won't the EPA allow the states to set their own emission standards? In my general and limited understanding of the way our government works, the federal law is the baseline for all laws. The states are allowed to make stricter laws, but they cannot make laws that contradict or lessen federal laws. In this case, California and sixteen other states were asking to make stricter requirements. Not weaker ones.

Automakers praised the decision.
[...]
Mr. Johnson, the E.P.A. administrator, cited federal law, not science, as the underpinning of his decision. “Climate change affects everyone regardless of where greenhouse gases occur, so California is not exclusive,” he said.
~ John M. Broder and Felicity Barringer
NY Times Article

Well of course automakers are going to praise the decision. Now they won't have to a) go back to the drawing board and create cars with higher standards b) have to make different versions of cars in order to sell their vehicles in different states and c) lose their friendship with the industries that don't want the standards to raise.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen L. Johnson denied the state's request to implement its own landmark law, noting that an energy bill signed by President Bush earlier in the day would go a long way toward reducing emissions throughout the United States. The bill provides the most significant increase in vehicle fuel economy standards in more than three decades.
[...]
State officials and environmentalists said the energy bill, although helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions nationally, was no substitute for California's efforts, which would go further and achieve results faster.
~By Richard Simon and Janet Wilson
LA Times Article

Exactly! If California had pushed forward with those requirements, they would be bettering ALL of the globe. L. Johnson stating above that California is not exclusive is the point.

Labels: environment, news