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Topic: If something from Bush looks too good to be true..
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| UGoGirl | Posted – 4/24/2008 11:44:05 AM | show profile On Earth Day, Bushco came out with new "ramped up" fuel economy standards. Looks good at first glance, but it attempts to pre-empt california's higher standards that many other states were opting for. States rights are all well and good unless the states want to use less gasoline. **** President Bush's popularity may have sunk to a new low this week in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office as it discovered the language deep within new federal fuel economy standards released on Earth Day. The Bush administration proposed blocking California from imposing its stricter vehicle regulations, which the state believes are necessary to reach its environmental goals. Mary Nichols, one of Schwarzenegger's top environmental appointees, convened a Capitol press conference Wednesday to call the federal proposal "insidious," adding that it was "frankly beyond even what we had thought possible from this administration." ...California still needs permission from the federal government to carry out a 2002 state law establishing strict standards on vehicles sold here, and the Bush administration has declined to give it, prompting legal disputes that are ongoing. Every time the Bush administration has refused to grant California permission, Schwarzenegger has responded by attacking the federal government. ...The latest battle erupted Tuesday over a proposed regulation in the U.S. Department of Transportation's proposed fuel economy standards. On Page 378 of a 417-page report, the department proposes blocking states from regulating vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. ...Nichols said California's standards are 13 percent more stringent than the federal guidelines by 2015. She suggested Wednesday that the Bush administration was being influenced by Detroit lobbyists, referring to "little giveaways to the auto industry" in the latest guidelines. ...Bill Magavern, executive director of Sierra Club California, noted that the 2002 California law in limbo was set to affect 2009 vehicles, which will start being built later this year. "It would be a mistake to be complacent and say, 'Well, this wrong-headed president is in his last year and therefore we're not going to worry too much,' " Magavern said. "It's no small matter to reverse the direction of a federal agency, even when there's a change of administration." http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/885840.html |
