CPR Member Scholar Nina Mendelson has a piece in today's New York Times "Room for Debate" online feature on California's Clean Air Act waiver request. She says President Obama's direction to EPA that it reconsider its previous denial of the waiver (issued during the Bush Administration) "reaffirms the critical role of states as environmental leaders, something lost sight of in the previous administration."
She continues:
Permitting states to develop new approaches is not just about finding local solutions for local problems that might escape the notice of federal regulators. State governments also can serve as “laboratories of democracy,” in Justice Brandeis’s words, devising and testing new ideas to address societal problems. This is one reason why Congress allowed California to develop its own automotive pollution standards, a power California has had for decades.
This all may sound abstract, but the effects are concrete. States have been leaders, spurring change in areas ranging from regulating predatory lending to addressing mercury pollution from power plants.
California’s greenhouse gas auto standards are similarly likely to make a concrete difference, not just a symbolic one. Admittedly, limiting greenhouse gas emissions from cars driven in Los Angeles can take California only so far in saving the state from wildfires, droughts and coastal flooding. But California’s leadership will likely trigger change elsewhere. That will generate broader effects both inside and outside the state.
Most immediately, so many states have already chosen to adopt California’s standards that, if the E.P.A. approves them, half the U.S. market for new cars would be governed by these standards. And of course, greenhouse gases from cars and trucks must be addressed as part of any comprehensive American effort on global warming.
She concludes that "permitting states like California to lead is an important part of a concrete, constructive response to climate change."
Also participting in the online debate are William Reilly, former E.P.A. administrator; Jonathan H. Adler, Case Western Reserve law professor; Chip Jacobs, co-author of “Smogtown” Robert W. Hahn, economist at American Enterprise Institute; and Jerry Taylor, senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
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Matthew Freeman | January 27, 2009
CPR Member Scholar Nina Mendelson has a piece in today’s New York Times “Room for Debate” online feature on California’s Clean Air Act waiver request. She says President Obama’s direction to EPA that it reconsider its previous denial of the waiver (issued during the Bush Administration) “reaffirms the critical role of states as environmental leaders, […]
Rena Steinzor | January 26, 2009
This morning, the Center for Progressive Reform published a report on some of the issues that will confront President Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein, if, as seems likely, he is nominated and confirmed to be the director of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I’ve blogged on this before, and our report, Reinvigorating Protection […]
Shana Campbell Jones | January 23, 2009
When it comes to protecting the environment and human health, the difference between what the Obama Administration portends and what the Bush Administration wrought may reside in the difference between three little words: “yes, we can” versus “no we won’t.” How and when Lisa Jackson, President-elect Obama’s pick to head the EPA, tackles perchlorate will […]
Margaret Clune Giblin | January 22, 2009
Former President George W. Bush departed for Dallas on Tuesday, but his pervasive legacy remains here in Washington. In a prior post here on CPRblog, I wrote about one of the Bush Administration’s “midnight regulations,” which collectively stamped the most recent of the Bush imprints on public policy. In its proposed changes to the interagency […]
Matthew Freeman | January 21, 2009
Editor’s Note: Following is the second of several posts focused on federal preemption issues and featuring CPR Member Scholars Thomas McGarity and William Buzbee. In December, both published books on the issue. (The first blog post in the series includes some background on the issue.) McGarity’s book is The Preemption War: When Federal Bureaucracies Trump […]
Holly Doremus | January 20, 2009
Editor’s Note: With the Bush Administration’s remaining time in office now measured in hours, we asked CPR Member Scholars to remind us of some of the less publicized moments of the Administration’s record on environmental issues. Following is the fourth of several entries published before President Bush returns to Texas. In this one, Holly Doremus […]
Joe Feller | January 20, 2009
Editor’s Note: With the Bush Administration’s remaining time in office now measured in hours, we asked CPR Member Scholars to remind us of some of the less publicized moments of the Administration’s record on environmental issues. Following is the third of several entries that we’ll run on CPRBlog before President Bush returns to Texas. Below, […]
Dale Goble | January 19, 2009
Editor’s Note: With the Bush Administration’s remaining time in office now measured in hours, we asked CPR Member Scholars to remind us of some of the less publicized moments of the Administration’s record on environmental issues. Following is the second of several entries that we’ll run on CPRBlog before President Bush returns to Texas. Below, […]
A. Dan Tarlock | January 19, 2009
Editor’s Note: With the Bush Administration’s remaining time in office now measured in hours, we asked CPR Member Scholars to remind us of some of the less publicized moments of the Administration’s record on environmental issues. Following is the first of several entries that we’ll run on CPRBlog before President Bush returns to Texas. A. […]