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States to sue over emissions laws

NY Times News Service, ALBANY, New York

New York is one of more than a dozen states, led by California, preparing to sue the Bush administration for holding up efforts to regulate emissions from cars and trucks, several people involved in the lawsuit said on Tuesday.

The move comes as New York and other Northeastern states are stepping up their push for tougher regulation of greenhouse gases as part of their continuing opposition to US President George W. Bush's policies.

Yesterday, Governor Eliot Spitzer's administration planned to issue regulations requiring power plants to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions, part of a broader plan among 10 Northeastern states, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, to move beyond federal regulators in Washington and regulate such emissions on their own.

"I believe that states have to step into a void created by a failure of federal action," Spitzer said in an interview on Tuesday. "The global warming issue is one where the current administration has first denied the scientific evidence and only recently begun to discuss the matter in a serious way."

"New York state is moving forward on all cylinders to take aggressive action to curb global warming from both power plants and cars," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on Tuesday. "I stand with the governor to support these policies, and I will take vigorous action both to defend these important initiatives from any challenge and to sue the Bush administration if the federal government tries to block us."

The legal move by the states to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is aimed at prodding the Bush administration to remove obstacles to more than a dozen states seeking to regulate global warming emissions from cars and trucks. In 2005, California sought a waiver from the EPA that would allow it to implement the first regulation in the US requiring reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from cars. The EPA has not yet granted the waiver, keeping the regulation from taking effect.

New York, Massachusetts and a number of other states have since moved to adopt California's measure. They cannot proceed until the EPA moves on the waiver.

If implemented, the measure would first affect 2009 models -- automakers have said it would make it harder to sell the largest and least fuel-efficient sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks in states that adopt the rules.

The lawsuit against the EPA was expected to be filed yesterday, but will be delayed until next week as California continues to deal with wildfires, aides to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday.

The states have won several key court challenges in recent months and in April the US Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.

After that ruling, the agency's administrator, Stephen Johnson, made a commitment to deciding on the waiver issue by the end of the year.

"We're interested in a good decision, not a good headline," said Jennifer Wood, a spokeswoman for the agency.
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