California emissions waiver formally blocked

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Friday formally rejected California's bid for a waiver from U.S. law to set its own tailpipe emissions standard to reduce global warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a regulatory notice signed by Administrator Stephen Johnson, canceling California's plans to impose a state law that would have forced automakers to reduce emissions by making cars that achieve sharply higher gas mileage beginning next year.

The decision also affects 18 other states that wanted to adopt the measure.

The announcement was expected. Johnson had announced in December he would deny the waiver because the state's pollution problems, in his view, did not merit special consideration.

"While I find that the conditions related to global climate change in California are substantial, they are not sufficiently different from conditions in the nation as a whole to justify separate state standards," Johnson wrote.

He ruled against California even though internal documents released by Congress in January revealed that EPA staff concluded the agency would probably lose if the state went to court. California sued in January.

Environmental groups said the formal denial, which outlined the agency's legal argument, was inexplicable.

"Johnson's excuse that global warming is not unique to California is both factually and legally wrong," said David Doniger, policy director for the National Resources Defense Council.