Lockyer’s Court Action on Global Warming is Bold and Needed

The scientific debate about global warming is over (in truth it has been over for a long time). Some forecast changes like the melting of the polar ice caps are happening even faster than anyone expected, and the global consequences will be severe. The world’s leading and most reputable climate experts warn that as fresh water floods the oceans and sea levels rise, major ocean currents could conceivably shift course, changing the weather for billions of people. They also tell us that we have a narrow window in which to slow and begin reversing this problem before it gets away from us. The Republican leadership in Congress and in the White House is seemingly mesmerized by the selfish bleating of their automaker and oil industry patrons. In this dangerous vacuum California’s leadership has been welcomed by many states that also sense the risk, and for whom inaction is not an option.

The big automakers are a major source of the problem yet they resist becoming part of the solution. The industry that fought safety glass in cars, seatbelts, fuel economy standards, catalytic converters, and the zero-emission vehicle mandates, now wants to sidestep responsibility for its global warming emissions. Instead of complying with California emissions laws it fights them every step of the way, suing to block Pavley, and undermining the air board’s zero emission car programs. Even Japanese automakers – who are gleefully eating the lunch of the American competitors by making more efficient and therefore responsible vehicles– have wrong-headedly sided with the industry’s opposition to our global warming laws. General Motors, a company sinking into the morass of its bad product decisions, went so far as to implement what amounted to a “final solution” for its EV1 fleet of electric cars, rounding up every single vehicle and delivering them to a death camp in the desert where they were subsequently all reduced to scrap save one or two disabled relics ensconced in auto museums. This is an industry that loves to claim that voluntary measures are the way to go, but which has needed government regulation, litigation and pressure to make the most obvious changes to benefit public health and the environment.

Attorney General Lockyer knows they will never change unless forced to do so. He also knows that the clock is running out on our ability to make a difference on the most serious environmental challenge in human history. Literally every person on Earth is affected by their intransigence and failure. We can only hope that his suit gets their attention – and better yet – prevails. Other coastal states: come on in; the water, though rising, is for the moment fine.

Carl Zichella is the Regional Staff Director for the Sierra Club for California, Nevada, and Hawaii.