Attorney General Brown says California has waited long enough for the federal government to take action on global warming.
Brown said Monday that he will sue the Environmental Protection Agency for stalling on a decision about whether to let California and 11 other states, including Connecticut, force automakers to produce cleaner cars.
The lawsuit, to be filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, comes 22 months after California first asked the EPA to let California impose tougher regulations on emissions of greenhouse gases from cars, pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles.
“Unfortunately, the Bush administration has really had their head in the sand,” Brown said. “In this case, there has been an unreasonable delay.”
California wants to implement a 2002 state law that would require automakers to begin making vehicles that emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions by model year 2009. It would cut emissions by about a quarter by the year 2030. But the law can only take effect if the EPA grants the state a waiver under the Clean Air Act.
The auto regulations are a major part of California’s plan to reduce greenhouse gases statewide by a quarter by 2020.
The EPA held hearings this summer on California’s waiver, and administrator Steven Johnson told Congress he would make a decision by the end of the year. The schedule has not changed, EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said Monday.
In the meantime, the agency is also crafting national standards that it will propose by the end of the year, Wood said.
Schwarzenegger in April warned the EPA he would sue if the agency failed to act on the waiver within six months. That deadline is Tuesday.
“We feel like it’s a reasonable request,” Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said. “They’ve delayed for a long time, and it’s time to take action.”
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Washington also plan to join California’s lawsuit against the EPA.
While the federal government sets national air pollution rules, California has unique status under the Clean Air Act to enact its own regulations — with permission from the EPA. Other states can then follow either the federal rules or California standards, if they are tougher.
Eleven other states — Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — are ready to implement California’s emissions standards if it gets the waiver. The governors of Arizona, Florida and New Mexico have said their states will adopt the standard.
“We are working with California to urge EPA to allow stronger state standards for motor vehicle emissions,” said Richard Blumenthal, attorney general for Connecticut.
Other states are taking a more cautious approach. New Mexico does not plan to immediately intervene, but may reconsider if the EPA doesn’t act on the waiver request by the end of the year, said Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for Attorney General Gary King.
California’s proposed emissions standards got a boost in April when the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA could regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. The agency previously had argued it did not have that authority. A federal judge in Vermont also upheld California’s auto emission standards after a challenge from automakers.
But even if California is granted the waiver, there are more legal hurdles. The Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, which represents Honda, Nissan, Toyota and 11 other foreign car companies, has sued to block the standards from taking effect.
Car companies argue that the tougher standards would raise the cost of cars and possibly force them to take some sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks out of showrooms. Their case is pending in federal court in Fresno.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has asked the EPA to deny the waiver, arguing there should be one federal standard for tailpipe emissions.
“EPA can and should take the appropriate time needed to properly analyze and respond to the waiver request,” spokesman Wade Newton said in a statement.
