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TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
today that New Jersey has joined with California
and 13 other states in suing the federal
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over
its failure to act on a waiver that would
enable California – and ultimately
New Jersey and the other states -- to impose
tougher greenhouse gas emission standards
for passenger cars and light-duty trucks
beginning with the 2009 car model year.
Filed today in Washington, D.C., two separate
federal lawsuits seek to compel EPA to take
action on California’s 22-month-old
request for a waiver from the “preemption”
provision of the federal Clean Air Act by
December 31, 2007. The waiver would enable
California to set its own limits on greenhouse
gas emissions, including carbon dioxide.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA’s granting
of a waiver would also free up New Jersey
and the other states to enact the California-set
limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The
federal government sets national air pollution
standards, but the Clean Air Act affords
California unique standing to enact its
own regulations -- if first granted permission
by the EPA. Other states can then elect
to adopt the California standards. At present,
there are no federal standards for greenhouse
gas emissions.
“New Jersey has been doing its part
to address the threat of global warming,
and we have been urging EPA to do its part
by granting the California waiver request,”
said Milgram. “Granting of the waiver
would enable New Jersey to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by a substantial amount, and
reduce our citizens’ exposure to ozone
pollution. We have reached the point where
EPA’s failure to decide is holding
up New Jersey’s efforts to deal with
this important quality of life issue. It
is time for EPA to either act or get out
of the way.”
Earlier this year, Milgram testified at
an EPA hearing in Washington, D.C. on the
California waiver issue. At that hearing,
she noted that New Jersey has 130 miles
of highly-populated coastline, and is “extremely
vulnerable” to the sea-level rise
predicted due to global warming.
Milgram explained that New Jersey Governor
Jon Corzine has signed an Executive Order
that sets a goal of cutting greenhouse gas
emission levels in the state 20 percent
by the year 2020, and calls for a reduction
from 2006 levels of 80 percent by the year
2050.
Milgram said the granting of California’s
waiver request would lead to at least one-third
– and likely much more – of
the nationwide fleet of new vehicles reducing
greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
“Auto
makers will be encouraged to build cleaner,
gasoline-powered cars,” she testified
at the hearing. “These clean cars
should be, and will be, brought to New Jersey
and numerous other states if California’s
waiver request is granted. The problem of
global warming is real and EPA must do what
it can to help combat it.”
In 1990, California introduced a new “low
emission vehicle” program governing
pollutants, including carbon monoxide and
nitrogen oxide. New Jersey adopted the emission
standards of the California program. California
subsequently enacted a second phase of the
program and, on December 21, 2005, sought
the EPA waiver enabling tough new limits
on greenhouse gas emissions.
The two lawsuits filed today in Washington,
D.C – one in U.S. District Court,
the other in the U.S. Court of Appeals –
argue that, in allowing it to languish since
2005, EPA has “unlawfully withheld
and unreasonably delayed” the California
waiver request.
While scientific support for global warming
is significant, and evidence of the environmental
and economic threat it poses is substantial,
the EPA has resisted regulatory approaches
to controlling greenhouse gases.
However, in April of this year, the U.S.
Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that
EPA has authority under the Clean Air Act
to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants.
The Supreme Court decision paved the way
for California, New Jersey and other states
to adopt regulations to control greenhouse
gases found in the pollution from vehicles
sold in their states.
Joining New Jersey as interveners in the
California lawsuit are Massachusetts, Maryland,
Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Mexico,
Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Illinois,
Vermont, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Morelli, of
the Division of Law’s Environmental
Enforcement section, handled the matter
on behalf of the state.
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