California's Attorney General has sued the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) for refusing to issue a
decision about a Clean Air Act waiver request to let California and 11
other states—including Rhode Island-- force car manufacturers to
produce cleaner vehicles that will cut global warming pollution and
save oil.
The lawsuit comes after a series of public hearings—including
one in Virginia attended by Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch
and Environment Rhode Island staff—in which a diverse array of elected
officials and advocacy groups urged the EPA to move quickly to approve
the waiver request.
California’s original waiver request has
now been pending for 22 months. The filing of the lawsuit had been
delayed several weeks by the wildfires in California.
“We applaud this latest effort from California to get the ball
rolling on cleaner cars,” said Matt Auten, Advocate for Environment
Rhode Island. “However, this is a bittersweet moment because we have a
long way to go in the fight against global warming and yet even common
sense solutions like the Clean Cars Program are being delayed for years
by the EPA and big auto manufacturers. Hopefully this lawsuit will send
a clear message to the EPA that they must act”
A report released by the Environment Rhode Island Research
& Policy Center in May found that if EPA approves the waiver
request the results would mean:
• The cumulative global warming emission reduction from the
program between 2009 and 2020 would be 392 million metric tons, the
equivalent to taking 74 million of today’s cars off the road for an
entire year.
• Reduced gasoline consumption by as much as 8.3 billion
gallons per year in 2020—as much as is consumed by all the vehicles in
Florida in a year.
• Consumers could save up to $25.8 billion annually at the pump in 2020.
