My interpretation of the Act and relevant language places me at odds with some of the folks cited in this Washington Post story about the EPA’s decision to deny California a waiver of Clean Air Act preemption. For example:
“By refusing to grant California’s waiver request for its new motor vehicle standards to control greenhouse gas emissions, the administration has ignored the clear and very limited statutory criteria upon which this decision was to be based,” said S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents officials in 48 states. “Instead, it has issued a verdict that is legally and technically unjustified and indefensible.”
EPA’s lawyers and policy staff had reached the same conclusion, said several agency officials familiar with the process. In a PowerPoint presentation prepared for the administrator, aides wrote that if Johnson denied the waiver and California sued, “EPA likely to lose suit.”
If he allowed California to proceed and automakers sued, the staff wrote, “EPA is almost certain to win.”
That advocates on one side of the issue seek to spin the statutory language in one way or the other does not surprise me. Industry and environmental advocates do this all the time, particularly when they expect the issue to end up in court. Hyperbolic assertions ab out