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California Sues EPA, Again.
Photo by Señor Codo via Flickr
After suing the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year, California Attorney General Jerry Brown is at it once again over the agency's lack of regulation over greenhouse gas pollution from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment.
“Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel and cause massive greenhouse gas pollution yet President Bush stalls with one bureaucratic dodge after another,” Attorney General Brown said in a statement. “Because Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action.”
The only action taken by the EPA was an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” earlier this month. Brown called it "pathetically weak" as it did not once say greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare.
According to Brown's statement, "President Bush blocked EPA's original plan to make a formal finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare. Recently, congressional investigations have found that White House staff signed off on EPA's 'endangerment finding' in November 2007. Subsequently, White House officials told EPA to cancel the finding."
Meanwhile, local government officials requested a state of emergency to Bush and Gov. Schwarzenegger regarding the 5400 pollution-related deaths each year in Southern California.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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