Chairman of Energy Committee Supports Rejection of State Clean Car Rights
House Energy and Commerce chairman, Representative John Dingell (D) of Dearborn Michigan, recently announced his support for Administrator Johnson's rejection of the California Clean Car waiver. He and Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, recently toured the North American International Auto Show, meeting with auto executives and sharing their message about an overall climate bill.
Representative Dingell is using the recent CAFE victory as a justification for EPA to deny the waiver and block states rights to address global warming by claiming that the California standards are confusing and unachievable. A Vermont federal court recently disagreed, however, after hearing extensive testimony from the auto industry about its inability to put existing technology to work to make cleaner cars. In this federal court decision, Judge William Sessions concluded that implementing these standards was both technically and economically feasible.
The California clean car standards would achieve significant and fast reductions in greenhouse gases in the states that have adopted or are considering adopting the standards (Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.), and would work in conjunction with the recently passed CAFE standards to achieve oil and carbon emission savings. While the Sierra Club supports an economy-wide greenhouse gas reduction, we must start to reduce carbon emissions NOW from the transportation and electricity sectors in order to reduce greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050.
Tell Administrator Johnson to reverse his denial of the California Clean car waiver and allow states to move forward with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And if you're a citizen of a Pavley state, tell Mr. Johnson that he is blocking YOUR state from forward-thinking energy policy. Despite big-ticket politicians in DC undermining action on the local level, states still have the right to clean up their air and demand cleaner cars.
The Hotline, the Sierra Club's global warming e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on the fight to stop global warming. Every two weeks, you will receive an email with the information and tools to put real global warming solutions to work. |