I just stumbled across this article in the San Francisco Chronicle about draft legislation that would:
pre-empt California and 11 other states from implementing laws requiring automakers to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets...
The bill would add language to the Clean Air Act stating that the Environmental Protection Agency administrator could not grant states a waiver for their vehicle emissions rules if "such state standards are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." In other words, any state rules seeking to curb global warming would be null and void.
The legislation also appears to limit the power of the agency to set federal climate change rules -- even though the Supreme Court in April ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants and the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate vehicle emissions or explain why it won't.
...
Other parts of the bill also are stirring debate. The measure would subsidize coal-to-liquid fuels, which emit about twice the greenhouse gas emissions of traditional petroleum-based fuels
The author of the proposal is Rep. Rick Boucher,
a Democrat who represents a coal-producing district in southwest Virginia and chairs the House Energy and Commerce's subcommittee charged with crafting climate change legislation. The full committee's chairman, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a longtime ally of the auto industry, also played a key role in putting together the new legislation.
This has already drawn protests from Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Environmental Protection Agency. Well, good for Arnold!
It's bad enough that the burden lies so much on the states because of inaction and worse at the Federal level. But it's far worse when the Federal government actively tries to inhibit the states. And that this proposal should be coming from a Democrat in Congress is yet another indication that we need to be vigilant even when 'our team' is in charge.
The move was an ironic twist on a familiar story for California. When Republicans ran the House, they regularly tried to pre-empt the state's laws on food safety labeling, the minimum wage and consumer privacy -- and Democrats often cried foul. But this new effort is being led by some of the Democratic majority's most senior lawmakers.
I don't want to be overly melodramatic here. This is just draft legislation that may not see the light of day. As the article noted:
However, the pre-emption plan might never see the light of day -- if, as expected, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and lawmakers from other affected states use their clout to quash the idea before it gets out of committee.
But I haven't seen any other diaries on this matter and it seems worthy of wider attention.