09.25.07
Blocking California emissions standards
Dan Froomkin today:
Zachary Coile writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: “President Bush’s transportation secretary, Mary Peters, with White House approval, personally directed a lobbying campaign to urge governors and two dozen House members to block California’s first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress.
“The e-mails show Peters worked closely with the top opponents in Congress of California’s emissions law and sought out governors from auto-producing states, who were seen as likely to oppose the state’s request that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allow the new rules to go into effect.
“‘The administration is trying to stack the deck against California’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions,’ House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote Monday to the White House. ‘It suggests that political considerations – not the merits of the issue – will determine how EPA acts.’
“Waxman released the e-mails, which are available on the committee’s Web site, along with his letter to the White House. The documents show that the idea to launch the lobbying effort started with Peters.”
For the GOP, state’s rights end where business interests begin.
