How the White House Worked to Scuttle California’s Climate Law

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How the White House Worked to Scuttle California’s Climate Law
by Zachary Coile

WASHINGTON - President Bush’s transportation secretary, Mary Peters, with White House approval, personally directed a lobbying campaign to urge governors and two dozen House members to block California’s first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress.0925 08

The e-mails show Peters worked closely with the top opponents in Congress of California’s emissions law and sought out governors from auto-producing states, who were seen as likely to oppose the state’s request that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allow the new rules to go into effect.

“The administration is trying to stack the deck against California’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote Monday to the White House. “It suggests that political considerations - not the merits of the issue - will determine how EPA acts.”

Waxman released the e-mails, which are available on the committee’s Web site, along with his letter to the White House. The documents show that the idea to launch the lobbying effort started with Peters.

The secretary “asked that we develop some ideas asap about facilitating a pushback from governors (esp. D’s)” - Democrats - “and others opposed to piecemeal regulation of emissions, as per CA’s waiver petition,” Jeff Shane, the Transportation Department’s undersecretary for policy, wrote to top staffers on May 22.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/25/4099/