Clean Car Decision Underscores Bush Climate Agenda: Deny, Delay, Derail

Today Democratic Senate Candidate Steve Novick decried the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to block vehicle emissions standards enacted by Oregon, California and 15 other states to reduce global warming. The decision reflects President Bush's determination to prevent any significant action on climate change.

"President Bush has spent seven years denying and delaying real action to confront the looming crisis of global warming. Now his EPA is trying to derail this effort by Oregon and other states to make up for his bankrupt leadership," said Novick. "Over the advice of professional policy staff and lawyers at the agency, and at the behest of the energy industry, the Bush administration they are now trying to derail this initiative – a battle they know they'll lose in the courts.  We need real progressive leadership in D.C. to demand that the next President tackle this climate crisis, not act as the tool of special interests opposed to change."

Yesterday, over the advice of staff attorneys and policy experts, the political appointees at the EPA denied California a Clean Air Act waiver to implement tighter rules on tailpipe emissions from vehicles, thereby blocking implementation of the rules in 17 states including Oregon. The auto industry has actively lobbied the White House and EPA to deny the waiver, with the chief executives of Ford and Chrysler meeting with Vice President Cheney on the subject last month. Although staff warned that the EPA was likely to be overturned in court, the agency issued the decision anyway. [Washington Post, 12/20/07]

"The stated rationale that this would preempt Bush's own national climate effort would be laughable if the stakes for our future weren't so high.  This is a president who spent years denying global warming was a problem, saying we need more study. And even now, he continues choking off any meaningful action on the issue," said Novick. "And sadly, Bush's attitude on climate change is the exact same as Gordon Smith's. As recently as 2003, Smith was saying that scientists were evenly divided on whether humans have a role in global warming. Oregon needs a Senator who understands this pressing problem and will get the job done."

On November 5, 2003, Smith wrote in the Oregonian, "Our understanding of climate change is very limited. Some think automobiles and industrialization are to blame for Earth's current warming period. Yet, just as many scientists point to natural indicators -- from ancient tree rings to glacial ice cores -- as evidence that the planet regularly experiences both warming and cooling trends."