What are your thoughts on the EPA's denial of California's waiver petition?

Question

For those of you who don't know, California is the only state in the US that is allowed to enact air pollution laws that are more stringent than federal standards. The Clean Air Act, however, requires California to get a waiver from the EPA before enacting such regulations.

California has obtained several such waivers over the last 30 years. Last week was the first time such a waiver was denied. California was trying to regulate carbon pollution. Actually, the EPA ignored the petition until California sued and a federal judge ordered the EPA to evaluate it. California has threatened to sue again over the denial.

I am interested in hearing what people think of this issue. Please note that I am NOT interested in your opinions on global warming or Kyoto Protocol or any of that stuff, only on the federalism issues.

Old fuzz, like I said in the question, only California is allowed to petition for a waiver and write their own laws. The other states do not have that authority (although they can opt for the CA standards rather than the federal ones if they choose).

Answer 1

As a California resident and taxpayer, I'm very glad it was denied.

It's already very hard for a California business, especially in any sort of energy-intensive field - to be competitive.

The proposed State-specific rules for manufacturing businesses would have made it so much more expensive for a factory or warehouse to operate here as compared to over the State line that many would have had no choice but to move.

We're already seeing some of this with regard to the energy rollback laws. Some businesses that have expanded their operations - gone to 24 hour operation, for example - since their baseline was established are now being told to roll back to baseline energy consumption. If you were only working one shift then, but are now working 3, what do you do? Fire 2/3 of your workers and go back to one shift, or move to Nevada?

Richard

Answer 2

'bout time the EPA started living up to its mandate to protect the environment. If CA can write its own laws, so can the other 49 states. This results in a huge, confusing, time wasting, and expensive set of standards that no one can comply with. The EPA is supposed to set those standards, not a bunch of politicians trying to pass "feel good laws".