Did Feds Try To Stop Calif. Emissions Law?

Congressman Says Transportation Department Documents Show Inappropriate Intervention With EPA

(AP)  As the Environmental Protection Agency deliberated on whether to allow California to implement its greenhouse gas law, another federal agency sought to mobilize state and federal lawmakers against the state's petition, documents show.

The 71 pages of Transportation Department e-mails and memos were released Friday to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who has contended that the Transportation Department's intervention with EPA was inappropriate and possibly illegal.

The Transportation Department says it did nothing wrong and was simply disseminating information.

The documents show that as EPA's June 15 comment deadline approached, Transportation Department officials compiled lists of senators, House members and governors in states with significant numbers of auto plants and employees, including Michigan, Ohio, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Agency employees then called the lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, working off a script that said letting California implement its own emissions controls on automakers could create “a patchwork of regulations on vehicle emissions which would have significant impacts on the light truck and car industry.”

The callers sought to gauge the lawmakers' interest in submitting comments to EPA. “If asked our position, we say we are in opposition of the waiver,” the script says.

At issue is California's first-in-the-nation law that would cut greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, by 25 percent from cars and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles beginning in 2009. California can't implement the law unless it gets a waiver from the EPA allowed under the Clean Air Act.

If California gets the waiver, at least 11 other states are ready to follow its lead and implement the same controls. The auto industry opposes letting California have a waiver, arguing in favor of a nationwide tailpipe emissions standard.

In one e-mail exchange released Friday, Transportation Department officials note that Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., planned to submit comments to EPA. About a week later, Knollenberg and six Michigan Republicans urged the EPA to reject California's request, saying it would “bankrupt the domestic auto industry.”

Beyond that, though, the Transportation Department's calling campaign seemed to yield limited results. Among the nearly 2,300 submissions in the EPA's docket, there don't appear to be letters from any of the other members of Congress in states targeted by the department.

The documents released Friday include a June 6 e-mail among Transportation Department aides about a planned telephone conversation between Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

“We should provide her with an update on any additional calls that have been made,” one Transportation staffer writes. But it's not clear whether Johnson was made aware of the Transportation Department's calling campaign.

EPA spokeswoman Jessica Emond said the call between Peters and Johnson was routine and that during it, Johnson indicated he wasn't inclined to extend the comment period on the waiver request. She didn't say whether he knew of the Transportation Department's calls to lawmakers.

The Transportation Department wrote to Waxman that in addition to the documents released publicly Friday, it was providing him “an inventory of additional documents that are responsive to your request but implicate confidentiality interests of the executive branch.” No details on those documents were released.

California submitted its waiver request two years ago, but EPA only began to consider it after a Supreme Court decision in April saying the agency has authority to regulate greenhouse gases. EPA has refused to say how it will rule but says it will issue a decision by the end of the year.

[ubrew12]

"Did Feds Try To Stop Calif. Emissions Law?"

Does sh it stink? Do birds have wings? Did the Shrub go AWOL to avoid serving in Vietnam?

[ioweign]

Does sh it stink? Do birds have wings? Did the Shrub go AWOL to avoid serving in Vietnam?
Posted by ubrew12 at 09:37 PM : Jun 29, 2007

I think he went AWOL because Texas Guard was going to start taking blood samples for drugs?

[thismachine]

Someone needs to give Mr. Waxman a medal. As much as I despise the Demicans and Republicrats, I say he's one of the best candidates for upstanding leader of this country.

[yamuttya]

It's clear bush and co. are traitors.
They disgrace America and democracy.
Voted for Bush ?
Shame on you.

[freckster]

Stop the lip service and griping in these forums. Email your representatives. Impeach Bush Now!

[acauble1]

If the only auto manufacturers left in America are Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and other foreign companies...


... THEN SO BEIT!


I'm not worried about the workers at the U.S. car plants, as the smart ones will find manufacturing jobs with the predominantly non-union foreign automakers.

The executives of the U.S. automakers will all leave their companies with their multi-billion dollar 'parachutes'. The U.S. economy will survive without U.S. car manufacturers. And the environment will survive with better engineered cars from other countries!

[brianbwb-2009]

"Michigan Republicans urged the EPA to reject California's request, saying it would %u201Cbankrupt the domestic auto industry."

So?

Did they care when laying off hundreds of thousands of autoworkers in the 70s that their action would bankrupt hardworking citizens nationwide?

Nope.

Whenever they want to influence law to their favor, they hold the "unemployment knife" to the necks of the workers. Well now they don't have so many workers, so the economic shock won't be anywhere near what happened in the 70s, so we can take it.

Call their bluff.

[incog-nito]

acauble1: With the U.S. manufacturing base almost completely gone, and high-tech, high-skilled jobs slowly going to China and India, what will the U.S. economy consist mostly of? People selling stuff to each other?

[acauble1]

acauble1: With the U.S. manufacturing base almost completely gone, and high-tech, high-skilled jobs slowly going to China and India, what will the U.S. economy consist mostly of? People selling stuff to each other?
Posted by incog-nito at 01:59 AM : Jun 30, 2007
............

Yes. America will just become one big yard sale! Rotating from one city to the next every few days.

But seriously, if the corporate tax incentives were aimed at manufacturing domestically as opposed to off-shoring jobs, then the economy would grow tremendously!

Why has Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Volkswagen, and many other foreign car makers EXPANDED their manufacturing in America? There has to be some economic benefit to them through some type of tax incentives. Let's repeat those incentives to every foreign company as well as domestic companies. The increase in jobs will help the tax revenue increase within the government coffers, far surpassing the loss from the tax incentives given.

[randalds]

I think he went AWOL because Texas Guard was going to start taking blood samples for drugs?

Posted by IOWEIGN at 09:50 PM : Jun 29, 2007

I don't think there's really any doubt about that.

[l8c6]

acauble1,

How well trained our thought is in the United States. You make the immediate assumption that business cannot succeed in the U.S. without huge tax incentives.

The people of this country are being demoralized by the greed of a few.

The United States is not the only country that produces. If one travels to Europe there can be observed many products from cars, to appliances etc. etc. In spite of this European countries can provide a modern civilized standard of living for all of it's citizens much better than the U.S. The right wing fascists of the United States have long called this socialism. Well, I guess that makes the right wing anti-social-----look up the definition.

The kings of the old European societies would have called it socialism for a government to be designed to allow for the care of its citizens. They would have detested it because otherwise they would not have had the power or the insane wealth they possessed because the system would allow more even distribution of wealth not showering it on small number. In the old world there were in mass great numbers of losers and a small amount of winners. Not good for humanity. Very good for the church and the gentry.

[l8c6]

acauble1,

The "non-union" auto makers are reconsidering expanding their manufacturing in the U.S. in part because there is no universal health care for the citizens of the U.S.

Angela Merkel, Germany's first woman chancellor is considered conservative yet she set limits on CEO pay in Germany.

The U.S. is a nation of people who have allowed themselves to be duped by pimped off, narcissitic non-visionary destroyers of society that spout off their deceiptful distractors to a lemming populace.

The future kings, the grand pimps of today, are delighting in this divided populace that lives in a state of demoralization and fear.

[duanek222]

I am an American living and working in southern Turkey. There is a Chevrolet dealer selling small and medium sized Chevrolets that are of course not available in the USA. There is also a Ford dealer that is also offering small and medium cars not available in the USA. The Big USA car manufactureres are not telling the truth to the American public when they say they do not have cars that can meet mileage standards. The cars here must be efficient, because gas is $8 a gallon.

[bareemperor]

Let's see - if we follow the trail of dollars here...

Public wants change...

Auto industry doesn't want change...

EPA looks into it...

Transportation Dept hears from the Boss...

Boss linked to Big Oil...

BU$H

[toldyouso21]

How ugly, how apparently this implies not only conflict of interest, but influence peddling, coercion and possible misuse of government power. How much do we want to bet this goes right back to Cheney and Bush and will fall under the "executive privilege info" since it will show that Bush and Cheney pushed for or approved of the federal strong arm tactics. Can these people get any sleazier?

[pwrslm]

Auto manufacturers have another choice.

They can close all of thier distribution into California, and let California build or modify its own vehicles.

There is no law that states that California has to be included in the distribution of a companies product.

[peacethinker-2009]

The auto and oil industries always fight sensible changes.

[lostcountry1]

i restore vintage vehicles, i would never pay what new cars sell for, but i understand not everyone works on cars. i have worked in a G.M. plant in reno[not for G.M.but hostling trailers for them to unload], i have never seen so many overpaid, spoiled,lazy whiners in my life. this is where unions go awry.if people could stop wanting a new car every year, and just go on driving the one they already are paying on then perhaps the auto makers would come up with more gas efficient and affordable cars on their own.my truck is a 1964 and will go as fast and as far as i need to go. it has been paid for since i bought it.it has a 6 cylinder motor and gets average mpg. my insurance is minimal.it all comes down to dicipline on behalf of americans.do yourself a favor and save your money instead of chasing the carrot.

[forthepeopl1]

AMERICANS TO CHANGE THIS ILLEIGAL ADMINASTRATION AS A VETERAN IT IS MY DUTY TO SAVE MY COUNTRY.

time to take up ARMS and take them all out.

EVERYONE THAT WANTS TO HELP WITH THIS SHOULD BE TALKING TO ALL MEDIA OUTLETS AND TELLING THEM THAT AMERICANS ARE READY TO TAKE WASHINGTON ON AND ITS NOT A FEW AMERICANS ITMILLIONS OF AMERICANS THAT WILL TAKE BACK THERE COUNTRY..

I AM WILLING TO GIVE MY BLOOD FOR ALL AMERICANS TO GET OUR COUNTRY BACK TO WHAT OUR FORFATHERS WANTED.

AM A VET AND AM READY TO TAKE CHARGE OF THIS AMERICAN BOYCOT/COOP IF WE THE PEOPLE DONT DO THIS NOW WE WILL BE GIVENING UP ON OUR CONSTITUTION AND WHAT ALL OUR VET HAVE DIED FOR..

DAVID A BELANGER,VET US ARMY,[e-mail],978-618-310
5

ok so wants to join in on this great american REVOLUTION


they cant kill millions of americans at once so if we charge them all at once we will win and take them out and hang them all..

just like in the old days of the west...hang them from the trees in front of the whitehouse and see how many start telling the truth about what they have done to all us americans..


if the american NOW dont stand up and start a NATIONAL REVOUTION ON THIS WASHINGTON BULL S/H/I/T/ THEN we as TRUE AMERICANS can say nothing!!!

its time to take all this *** and take our government back now

[donnie900]

hahahaha. EPA SchmeePA. Buncha regulatory bazzztards who just transfer the burden onto the consumer. What other weird legislative conscious laws are there? Especially with liberals who like to tell everybody THEIR conscience.

Good. I'm glad. Down with the EPA! Down with the EPA! Down with the EPA!

[processor2]

Right, liberals are really concerned about states' rights now?


Shheeeee-iiiiit


...

[thisandthat1]

I wish Federal lawmakers would introduce a Bill requiring this guy get his nose fixed.

[prinzowhales]

lostcountry1--You are absolutely right as to the older vehicles. You could work on those. Today with the computers and everything, they are a mystery.

This kind of Big Auto Unionism is a vestige of 50 years ago, when the AFL-CIO sold unionism down the drain in a few industries--like steel and autos--where the capitalists had an oligopolic market and just added the wage increases and inefficiencies to the price of the car--what was essentially administered prices.

They built junk so people would have to replace it every few years--new styles and colours and marketing--a trend that Henry Ford tried to resist.

There was really no downside for the industrialists and the bankers behind them. They failed to modernize, put themselves at a competitive disadvantage and then used overseas capacity to undermine their own aging US capacity.

They did the same thing in the TV and electronics industry. The international bankers, the labour-fakirs and the rest made out like bandits.

[donnie900]

Mustangs and Camaros made in California are slower than Dodge Omnis made in Oklahoma.

[lostcountry1]

prinzowales, good to hear i'm not alone. we know it all comes down to money. the question is "how much money does any one person need?"i realize i'm out dated by todays standards,but i do my best to live within my means. big buisiness doesn't like people like me. they are preying on younger people who are stuck taking what they hand out. it truely is the demise of america.with CEO'S fleecing their companies, and the cost of living always beyond our grasp, they can payoff senators and the like and do whatever they want.i fear the only way for america to get back on track is for a great depression, only then when money is worth nothing, can we start over with a level playing field. i,m not some sort of defeatist, but i dont know what we can really do?the problem with people in power is they never want to lose it.how do we fix it?

[donnie900]

Only a liberal could find nothing to do.. no way out.. in a free market capital system.

Here's what ya do: Invent an engine as cost effective, powerful, and economical as the internal combustion engine. And provide it a government sponsored boost to beat the status quo establishment of the 1920s invented internal combustion engine. AND STOP TAXING THE CONSUMER!

[donnie900]

CO2 emissions are philosophically neutral. There's no.. "vast right wing lets pollute the environment conspiracy". There's only people paying for what they can afford! Just people..

Now, if you gotta better alternative? A cheaper one? I doubt they'll buy it. Saving money to them is a vast left wing conspiracy.

[donnie900]

And city buses? Trains? ANYTHING state and federal owned. Thats the majority of the CO2 emissions right there! YOU GUYS!

"But no... duhh. We gotta tell everybody to buy 10 dollar lightbulbs."

There's a guy sit'n in a corner, suck'n his thumb. Going: "There's no way out! There's no way out!" In a 4 story mansion with a 3 car garage and a swimming pool.

[donnie900]

You know what kind of an opportunity this is? For the free market? I wonder. For a car with a internal combustion engine to burn hydrogen gas (H2) and have the same range as a car that burns gasoline, its gas tank would have to be 3,000 times bigger than the one that burns gas. So the solution, philosophically speaking, is quite simple! Find a way, chemically, to store hydrogen fuel in tightly packed molecules FULL OF IT! And that fits in a 12 gallon tank for that 300 mile range. Then transfer it over to the engine, introducing it to a catalyst that suddenly releases the hydrogen right there into the carberator. BUT WAIT! If we can find a chemical that stores hydrogen in this way, I wonder.. I WONDER! If we can make it so that it ISN'T combustable. So that it doesn't burn.. Hmmm.. You know what that would do to the cost of insurance? To the cost of lives lost? In fuel fires? In plane fires? I wonder.. If we can make a "pink gup" that doesn't burn, but that you put into an automobile as fuel, and transfer all the way to the carberator where it meets a catalyst.. Hmmmm.

And I wonder if it'd cost less that 5 buck a gallon..

[sjc_1]

Bush allowed Ken Lay to hand pick the appointees at FERC and then told them to do nothing while Ken and the boys looted California and bankrupted utilities.

Bush is THE most corrupt so called "president" that this nation has ever had the misfortune to slither around th White House.

[ubrew12]

donnie900: Hydrogen isn't a source of energy, like gasoline, even though both are fuels. Hydrogen isn't pumped out of the ground, it has to be manufactured in energy-intensive power plants. For example, you can burn gasoline to produce hydrogen. You can also use nuclear, coal, solar, wind power, wave power, etc. So, its an energy currency, but NOT a SOURCE of energy, whereas gasoline is both. By itself, it doesn't solve CO2 related issues, or foreign oil issues, etc. But it could be part of a solution involving alternative energy technologies and nuclear, that COULD solve those issues.

[donnie900]

You can get it for free. There's an anerobic bacteria that makes it from methane. And you get methane from old oil wells. There's a bacteria that will convert an old empty oil well into methane gas.

And, you can get hydrogen from sea water.

[donnie900]

AND, when you burn hydrogen gas in a internal combustion engine the same way you would gasoline, what comes out the tailpipe instead of CO2 and NOx, is water vapor.

Water vapor.

Hydrogen gas can be manufactured from a number of sources, the most likely sea water, for 1.75 a gallon.

[donnie900]

Not only is hydrogen gas good for providing power for internal combustion engines, but for power facilities. Electrical power facilities. And out their stacks comes water vapor.

[donnie900]

GUESS WHAT!! Ya ain't gotta buy no fancy dancy car that costs 10x as much! Ya ain't gotta git no god damned 10 dollar light bulb. Ya ain't gotta turn off yer light switches THAT YOU PAY FOR!

[donnie900]

And nuclear power? Yer gonna give some dumb azzzed union worker the responsibility of nuclear waste? What if he's in a bad mood?

[donnie900]

Ya got de god damned result of negative publicity right ******** there! On the ******** headline! Ya don't think there's profit in terrorism?

HE COULDA BEEN'A MOVIESTAR!

[donnie900]

Have ya ever seen those Chinese chicks?! Huh? They look 12 years old! And der ******** 30!

[donnie900]

Ya got people freak'n out over de fact dat dey got ********* pistols! Yer gonna give'em nuclear waste!?

From Idaho?!!!

[lastdance2]

donnie900

"pass de burden onto de consumer" liberal sons'a byytches, and der catalytic converters and ******** up computers.
Posted by donnie900 at 01:24 PM : Jun 30, 2007

Buncha regulatory bazzztards
Posted by donnie900 at 11:46 AM : Jun 30, 2007
___________________________

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To purposely : Humiliate and humble the : Afro-American (Black) community.
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[torontorsh]

Let California regulate the amount of gas that goes into the air from tailpipes... Then make them regulate the amount of gas that goes into the air from Politicians... That should equal things out, if Washington, D.C. does the same thing.

[toldyouso21]

This is no surprise that CA's emission's law is being pursued by government. No one has brought this up yet, but the NAFTA part of the agreement which will allow Mexico truckers to go all the way through America with their goods will fall apart if it was allowed. They probably would not be able to meet the standards and would NOT be allowed to travel through any state that imposed these laws. This is still about business, the needs for the global market, and the surreptitious plans to create a union of the US, Canada and Mexico to offset the buying power and market share of the EU and China. Why is this important, see those chicken breasts at the grocer? Remember in 1999, the same amount in a pkg was about 3.49 and now is 14.99? THAT is what happens when we are no longer the top dog in commerce and markets and have to take a backseat to others. Our pricing and prices begin to look like theirs. What the gov. does not want Americans to know (because we might revolt) is that we are nearing 2nd world economy status and the only thing they can do is ensure money for the upper 5% before it all goes to hell. They need the cheapest labor and outsourcing with no complaints to pull that off.

The avg Joe? Most will be casualties, ending up in low paying jobs, and all those nice homes will eventually be bought by foreign tourists who have the monies we no longer have.

[gkc99]

The Republiscum neocons get elected on the basis of "less government interference" and "less government control", but when it suits the neocon purpose for federal intervention, these enemies of freedom are all "SEND IN THE BLUEBELLIES!"

There are no bigger liars, no bigger hypocrits, than the Bushshyte crowd.

Goosestepping scumbags.

Time to impeach--Pelosi grow some gonads!

[geneonlbk]

I believe the only imminent threat to my health and well being comes from my own federal government. They ****-off most of humanity. They allow their rich corporate friends to poison the land and the air. The lie and cheat at every turn. They allow their rich friends to charge $3.00 for something that costs 91 cents a barrel to pump out of the ground; when they could easily regulate this energy source just like the electric power industry for the public good. Yah, that will happen.

[geezer62]

While I do enjoy reading the comments posted here I feel that there is one who posts quite often that is in constant violation of your rules of engagement. He calls himself DONNIE900 and even though he is constantly on this site he has absolutely nothing to say. I guess he thinks he is cute but I believe most of us who have the capacity to think find him borish and crude. If you're going to have rules I suggest that you enforce them. This guy obviously has some mental problems.

[donnie900]

I come here cuz I love you guys.

[fizzal-2009]

Sounds like Waxman could care less how foreign countries produce their goods too sell in California and the rest of this country useing one of the biggist source of co2 too power their factories with coal. All that California is doing is putting more hurdles for manufactureing in the USA, and they keep inporting foreign goods manufactred with coal as their source of power without any polution controls.

[macusweil]

Yes, the Greed Over Principle mandate under this Republican controlled administration means the EPA is working against protecting the environment, protecting BIG oil and BIG business instead.

[smirk5]

More proof that Republicans love big gov't and don't think much of states' rights.

[mustangusa-2009]

I Believe the Government does not want things to change for the Better. They want the money from the auto makers and Oil companies. Not a Better life for the people.