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TRENTON --
Attorney General Anne Milgram announced today
that New Jersey has signed onto a multi-state
letter to new Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa Jackson urging her to fast-track
EPA’s compliance with a 2007 U.S. Supreme
Court order to act on the regulation of greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles.
In April 2007, the Supreme
Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the
EPA has authority under the federal Clean
Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions
from cars and trucks. As part of its ruling,
the court ordered EPA to make a determination,
based on science, as to whether greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles cause or contribute
to air pollution that endangers public health
and, if so, to develop regulations governing
such emissions.
The EPA under former Administrator
Stephen Johnson never complied with the Supreme
Court’s directive.
The multi-state letter to
new EPA Administrator Jackson, who previously
served as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection, asks that Jackson
move swiftly toward regulation of greenhouse
gas emissions. Specifically, the letter asks
that EPA act as soon as possible in issuing
“an affirmative endangerment determination,”
a prerequisite under the Clean Air Act.
“Administrator
Jackson was a leader on the issue of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions while serving as
our state’s environmental commissioner,
and we worked closely together on efforts
to protect New Jersey’s citizens and
natural resources,” said Milgram. “I
am hopeful that, under Administrator Jackson’s
leadership, EPA will make compliance with
the Supreme Court directive a high priority.
“Regrettably, the EPA under its former
leadership failed to comply with the Supreme
Court’s mandate to deal with this issue,
and the court’s order is now nearly
two years old,” Milgram added. “Since
motor vehicles account for the largest portion
of New Jersey’s total greenhouse gas
emissions, we consider regulation a matter
of urgency.”
In addition to New Jersey,
today’s letter to Jackson has been signed
by 17 states including: Massachusetts, Arizona,
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois,
Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico,
New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
Vermont and Washington state. The City of
Baltimore and the City of New York have signed
on as well.
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