EPA Nominee Jackson Says She'll Re-Visit Bush Administration Decision on California Exemption

EPA Administrator-designee Lisa Jackson told senators Wednesday that she will immediately re-examine the Bush administration's decision not to grant California the Clean Air Act exemption needed for the state to impose tough laws limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

President-elect Barack Obama has previously signaled his disagreement with the decision by current EPA administrator Stephen Johnson.

"My commitment is that I will immediately review that," Jackson, New Jersey's top environmental official, told Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "I will look to science and the law, and rely on the expert advice of the staff."

Johnson formally denied California the waiver of preemption required by the Clean Air Act for tougher state air-quality laws to go into effect in March 2008.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the Massachusetts v. EPA decision issued in April 2007, had ruled that EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The Bush administration has refused to exercise that authority.

At least 18 other states are poised to impose tough auto emissions rules if California is granted the Clean Air Act preemption waiver by the Obama administration. More than half the motor vehicles in the nation are registered in those states.

The California regulations, which were approved in 2002, would require all new cars and trucks to reduce their air pollutant emissions by at least 30 percent by the 2016model year.