Permission to Regulate Gases Is Sought

NY Times

January 22, 2009

By FELICITY BARRINGER

Mary D. Nichols, California’s chief air pollution regulator, formally requested that Lisa P. Jackson, President Obama’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, allow California and 13 other states to start regulating emissions of heat-trapping gases from passenger vehicles by granting the necessary federal waiver. If the Obama administration grants the waiver, these states — and eventually three more that have indicated they would adopt the same policy — can begin enforcing emission standards that would eventually require automakers to put more fuel-efficient cars on the market. Together, the 17 states represent about half of the American auto market. Last year, the Bush administration, breaking with precedent, denied California the right to establish its own standards in the absence of any federal mandates. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his own separate letter to President Obama, urged him to direct the E.P.A. “to act promptly and favorably” on the request.