The US government on Wednesday rejected a request by California allowing it to introduce tough new vehicle emissions standards, dealing a blow to the state's hopes of slashing greenhouse gas levels over the next decade.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a statement that after consideration of the requests by California, it had found there were no "compelling and extraordinary conditions" to grant a waiver.
The EPA instead said legislation signed by US President George W. Bush this week was a step toward a "clear national solution" toward curbing greenhouse gas emissions rather than a "confusing patchwork of state rules."
California passed legislation in 2002 requiring automakers to reduce vehicle emissions 30 percent by 2016. A total of 17 states had reportedly indicated they would adopt California's emissions levels.
However, for the law to take effect, California needed approval with a waiver from the EPA.
Analysts say the Bush administration is opposed to California's request because of fears of the effect it may have on the ailing US auto industry.
California officials responded to Wednesday's decision by vowing to press ahead with plans to sue the government.
"It is completely absurd to assert that California does not have a compelling need to fight global warming by curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cars," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said.
"There is absolutely no legal justification for the Bush administration to deny this request ? -- Governor Schwarzenegger and I are preparing to sue at the earliest possible moment," he said.
Schwarzenegger vowed no let-up in California's fight to set it's own standards.
"It is disappointing that the federal government is standing in our way and ignoring the will of tens of millions of people across the nation," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"We will continue to fight this battle. California sued to compel the [EPA] to act on our waiver, and now we will sue to overturn today's decision and allow Californians to protect our environment," he said.
Although Schwarzenegger applauded the federal energy bill signed by Bush, he said it did not go far enough.
"The energy bill does not reflect a vision, beyond 2020, to address climate change, while California's vehicle greenhouse gas standards are part of a carefully designed, comprehensive program to fight climate change through 2050," he said.
Schwarzenegger has made the environment a key issue of his tenure, signing a historic bill in September last year that saw the state become the first in the US to impose limits on global warming gases.
Under the plan, California aims to slash the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by the year 2020, a figure that Schwarzenegger has said is equivalent to removing 6.5 million vehicles from the road.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
CYBERCRIME, TRAFFICKING: A ‘pattern of state failures’ allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, it said Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Cambodia’s government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds. The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh. The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement
RSS