Web exclusive posted Feb. 11, 2009, at 2:41 p.m. CST 
 
 The U.S. EPA recently announced it will reconsider its March 2008 decision to deny California's request to set standards controlling greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The waiver request was originally submitted to EPA Dec. 21, 2005. On March 6, 2008, the request was denied by then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. On Jan. 26, President Barack Obama requested that the EPA reconsider the denial. 
 
 The Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to allow California to adopt its own emission standards for motor vehicles due to the seriousness of the state's air pollution challenges. There is a long-standing history of EPA granting waivers to the state of California. However, Johnson denied California's request, citing a difference in scope when compared to previous waiver requests that the state was granted. 
 
 "Unlike pollutants covered by the other waivers, greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment in California and elsewhere regardless of where the emissions occur. In other words, this challenge is not exclusive or unique to California and differs in a basic way from the previous local and regional air pollution problems addressed in prior waivers," Johnson stated in a Dec. 19, 2007, letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. 
 
 On Jan. 21, the EPA received a letter from California outlining several issues for current EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to review and reconsider regarding the previous waiver denial. Mary Nichols, chairperson of the California Air Resources Board, stated in the letter that Johnson improperly evaluated California's need for greenhouse gas standards in isolation rather than as part of California's complete motor vehicle emission control program. "This interpretation is contrary to the text and history of the waiver provision and its previous application," the letter stated. "The former administrator's error led him to invent a ‘fundamental causal factor' test (73 Fed.Reg. at 12162), improperly requiring only these California's standards to have a more specific - yet undefined connection between the pollutants regulated and the general factors affecting California's air pollution and resultant public health and resources impacts. He then applied his new test to conclude that Congress intended to limit California's emission standards to those addressing exclusively local or regional factors, ignoring overwhelming case law and Congressional intent to the contrary, and despite no expression of that purported limit in the text of 209(b)(1)(B)."
 
 On Feb. 6, the EPA announced it would reconsider the waiver request. "EPA has now set in motion an impartial review of the California waiver decision," Jackson said in an EPA press release. "It is imperative that we get this decision right, and base it on the best available science and a thorough understanding on the law."
 
 The EPA will take public comment concerning the reconsideration of the waiver for a period of 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. There will also be a public hearing to be held in March in Washington, D.C.

EPA to reconsider California waiver request

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Upcoming Events

National Carbon Capture Conference & Expo

2024 International Biomass Conference & Expo

2024 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo

Biodiesel Summit: Sustainable Aviation Fuel & Renewable Diesel

Carbon Capture & Storage Summit

EPA to reconsider California waiver request