TRENTON
-- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
today that New Jersey has signed onto a
multi-state letter to the federal Environmental
Protection Agency expressing concern that
EPA is “unreasonably delaying”
action it was directed to take by the U.S.
Supreme Court concerning regulation of greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles.
The
Supreme Court ruled in April 2007 that the
EPA, despite its assertion to the contrary,
has authority under the federal Clean Air
Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions
from cars and trucks. The court also found
that EPA used improper grounds to deny a
rulemaking petition filed by the states
that asked EPA to do so. The court ordered
EPA to revisit the states’ rulemaking
petition, to determine whether greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles cause harmful
air pollution and, if so, to develop regulations
governing such emissions.
According to Milgram, EPA indicated on several
occasions in 2007 that it was moving forward
on the Supreme Court’s directive and
that it intended to announce draft regulations
for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles
by year’s end. Despite its commitment,
which the EPA formalized in a regulatory
plan published in December 2007, EPA allowed
2007 to come and go without taking any action,
and has provided no specific sense of when
or how it intends to proceed.
“Despite
a compelling body of scientific evidence
concerning the relationship between air
pollutants and global warming, and despite
having been directed to act on the regulation
of greenhouse gases by the U.S Supreme Court,
the EPA continues to drag its feet,”
said Attorney General Milgram.
“The
time for talk is over,” Milgram continued.
“New Jersey has made a firm commitment
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in
order to protect our citizens and our natural
resources. It is well past time for the
federal government to make the same commitment
by performing its statutory duty, as directed
by the court.”
”Once
again the federal government's lack of action
defies all logic and obfuscates justice
by failing to protect public health,”
said New Jersey DEP Commissioner Lisa P.
Jackson. ”In New Jersey, motor vehicles
account for the largest portion of the state's
total greenhouse gas emissions.”
Addressed
to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson,
the multi-state letter requests that EPA
furnish specifics about how it intends to
comply with the court mandate in writing
by February 27, 2008. The letter warns that
further “unreasonable delay”
will result in legal action to enforce the
court’s directive.
In addition to New Jersey, the letter to
EPA has been signed by Massachusetts, Arizona,
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois,
Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico,
New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont
and Washington state. The City of Baltimore
and the City of New York have signed on
as well.
Deputy
Attorneys General Jung Kim and Lisa Morelli,
assigned to the Division of Law’s
Environmental Enforcement Section, are handling
the matter on behalf of the State.
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