FACT:
California and seventeen other states want to tighten regulations for greenhouse gas emissions from cars. These states represent half of all cars sold in the US. They have been waiting two years for the EPA to grant the Clean Air Act waiver necessary to start this process. In California alone the cutbacks would keep 31 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the air over the next decade.
FOLLY:
Johnson says:
The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution, not a confusing patchwork of state rules, to reduce America's climate footprint from vehicles.But, but... this was not what the EPA technical and legal staff wanted. They all seemed to think it was a good thing - enlightened, forward thinking, and that, if denied, it would certainly be legally challenged by the states, and probably overturned in court. But no matter. EPA is the Decider in this matter. No waiver.
So now California and its merry band of followers will sue the federal government. I'm no expert, but it does sound like the EPA will get smacked down on this one. The Bush administration will look silly. Again. Some lawyers will make a bunch of money. And the only upside in the whole affair for the White House will be its ability to say "See big automakers? We really tried. We're really on your side here. So give us your votes."
Will Detroit go for this though? I mean, come on. Are they really dim enough to keep buying into this hapless dynamic, over and over again, year after year?
Yes, big business is the engine of our economy. Yes. But we're looking at the very crux of our leadership vacuum here: a rudderless government, directed only by the immediate whimsy of what feels good to the engine.
"Oh no," says the engine, "we don't want to head that way, not up into the wind. That's too hard. We'll just cruise along with the wind at our back. That's much more comfy, don't you think?"
"Anything you say," says Captain Bush, "anything that keeps us moving. As long as I'm up here on the bridge." And First Mate Johnson just lets the wheel roll into the direction of least resistance.
Except, er, there are big, sharp rocks over there, and, um, aren't we getting kind of close? And isn't the captain, the Decider, supposed to be the one who sees those things and steers around them? And wait - what's that smell on your breath? Have you guys been drinking?
It's interesting to look at the states involved here. Very blue. Very proactive. Just trying to work creatively, trying to move things in the right direction.
No one wants to cripple American automaking - completely the opposite. The point is to pressure those folks down in the engine room to re-tool things a bit, to get the machinery humming more efficiently, to make this old ship less of a gas guzzler. It's a tough love thing.
And just one other small item: This is the administration that wastes no opportunity to tell us that certain things, like reproductive rights legislation, belong not in the hands of the federal government but at the state level. Why again? Because when we're talking about health and medicine what we're really after is a confusing patchwork of state rules!
