Rejection of California Clean Car Waiver Request Earns Bush Coal, Oil, Natural Gas for Christmas

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Last week, in a move that is sure to leave President Bush's stocking dripping with fossil fuel derivatives, the Bush Administration denied California's request to implement AB 1493, which limits greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Enforcement of California's law would require a waiver from the U.S. EPA under the federal Clean Air Act. Bush officials balked at California's attempt to regulate greenhouse gases and cited the new federal fuel economy standards in their Santa-baiting waiver denial.

In just about every other part of the world, smarter heads prevail. Here are three examples of cities that are cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing their resilience to global warming impacts (earning them candy canes, sugar plums, and new socks):

The week before, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom submitted a proposed green building ordinance to the city's Board of Supervisors for approval. His proposal would require that new commercial buildings and some residential buildings comply with the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED building standards by 2012.

• The city of Washington, D.C. adopted a similar measure for new commercial developments beginning in 2009.

• In October, Austin, Texas adopted a series of code changes that will require all new single-family homes built in the city to be more efficient and wired for future solar installation, making them "zero-energy capable," by 2015.

Doesn't that brighten your holidays? Stay tuned for more!

Gary Patton is the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide, nonprofit lobbying organization. For more than thirty years, PCL has fought to develop a body of environmental laws in California that is the best in the United States. PCL staff review virtually every environmental bill that comes before the California Legislature each year. It has testified in support or opposition of thousands of bills to strengthen California's environmental laws and fight off rollbacks of environmental protections.

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