--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US: May 22, 2007
WASHINGTON - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and fellow Republican Gov. Jodi Rell of Connecticut accused the US government on Monday of "inaction and denial" on global warming.
"It's bad enough that the federal government has yet to take the threat of global warming seriously, but it borders on malfeasance for it to block the efforts of states such as California and Connecticut that are trying to protect the public's health and welfare," the governors wrote in The Washington Post.
These two states and 10 others have approved plans for tougher standards than those imposed by the US government to limit vehicle emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
But the states can't put the new standards into practice without a waiver from the US Environmental Protection Agency, which has not yet granted one, 16 months after California first requested it.
The governors also criticized President George W. Bush for an executive order he issued last week giving federal agencies until the end of 2008 -- near the end of Bush's term -- to continue studying what to do about greenhouse gas emissions.
"To us, that again sounds like more of the same inaction and denial, and it is unconscionable," they wrote.
"California, Connecticut and a host of like-minded states are proving that you can protect the environment and the economy simultaneously," Rell and Schwarzenegger wrote. "It's high time the federal government becomes our partner or gets out of the way."
EPA officials have said they are considering options after the Supreme Court ruled in April that greenhouse gases can be regulated as pollutants under the federal Clean Air Act, which supports the states' case. An EPA hearing on the topic is scheduled for Tuesday in suburban Washington.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
