Congress Rebuffs EPA On Greenhouse Gas Law

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Note: This story has been corrected.

The House of Representatives began consideration Thursday of a bill that would reverse an unpopular Environmental Protection Agency decision, and allow California and 12 other states to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

The EPA denied California's request of a Clean Air Act waiver, which would grant it permission to set rules more stringent than federal air quality laws. If California, which has always had a special role in the Clean Air Act given its notoriously bad smog, is granted the waiver, then other states may follow suit.

The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the right and responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which fuel global warming, under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA rejected the waiver, after more than three years of delay and litigation, arguing that a Congressional upgrade to the nation's fuel economy standards was a more cohesive national policy to reduce emissions. But when the EPA released documents justifying the decision recently, its critics remained unconvinced.

According to Reuters, the 12 states that have pledged to adopt the California emissions law are: Connecticut, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah may also join in.

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