California files suit against EPA to overturn greenhouse gas waiver decision

Just two weeks after the EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson turned down California's request for a waiver allowing the state to regulate greenhouse gases, things are moving to court. California has followed trough on their promise to take the EPA to court by filing suit in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The grounds for the suit is that the EPA failed to adequately explain the reasons for denying the waiver. If California's regulations are allowed to go ahead it would effectively mandate a fleet fuel economy average of 44 mpg by 2020, significantly more than the 35mpg required by the recently passed federal energy bill. Fifteen other states have also adopted or are in the process of taking on California's environmental regulations. The Bush administration and the automakers will obviously be fighting this lawsuit vigorously because, after all, the last thing anyone in this administration wants to do is explain their actions.

[Source: Detroit News]