By Simona Perry, t r u t h o u t
On January 2, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) sent a letter to the Office of the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency asking for an investigation into the decision-making process leading to denial of a Clean Air Act preemptive waiver to the State of California. The senator specifically called on the inspector general’s office to investigate meetings and correspondence between White House officials, industry representatives, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and his staff, prior to the decision.
Technical or legal analysis supporting the EPA’s decision to deny the Clean Air Act waiver has yet to be produced. The decision undercuts state and local efforts to improve local air quality and respond to the immediate threat of climate change in a timely manner. And, the gravity of EPA’s decision lies not just in the denial of California’s right to implement stricter air quality standards via more stringent control of greenhouse gas emissions, but in the fact this also denies a Clean Air Act waiver in 14 other states – Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. All of these states have adopted regulations identical to California’s in an effort to improve local air quality and reduce the health consequences and global warming impacts of carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA’s decision denies the right to cleaner air across the US, and stalls efforts to combat global warming.