Let states lead way.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Rarely has the Bush administration's obstructionist approach to the fight against global warming been more clearly on display.

At a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., California officials pleaded with skeptical U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials for permission to enforce the state's own law imposing stricter controls on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.

Watching intently from the sidelines were Oregon and 10 other states that are poised to follow California's lead if it gets the required permission from the EPA to proceed with the tougher tailpipe standards.

This isn't how a nation that produces 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases should approach the most urgent environmental crisis of our time. But it's how the states have had to proceed in light of the Bush administration's refusal to put in place the mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions that are essential to slowing the pace of climate change.

Credit California with taking the leadership role. In 2002, state lawmakers approved a law requiring automakers to cut tailpipe emissions by 25 percent from cars and light trucks and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles starting with the 2009 model year. The new law will lead to an estimated 18 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in the state by 2020. But there's a catch: The law can't go into effect unless the EPA grants a waiver.

The federal government has final authority over air pollution rules. California has special standing because it restricted auto emissions before the federal government acted. Under the Clean Air Act, California can continue to refine its tailpipe standards, as long as the EPA signs off on any changes, and the agency has done so without exception more than 40 times in recent decades.

But the EPA has so far refused to grant California's latest waiver. The reason is the Bush administration's officious reluctance to offend the auto industry, which has sued to block California's new emissions limits, arguing that the federal government, not individual states, should control what amount to de facto fuel economy standards.

Oregon has a dog in this fight, as do Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state. They've also approved identical emissions standards but are barred from putting them in place until the EPA has given California permission to proceed. Six other states are actively considering adopting the same standards but are waiting to see what the EPA decides.

While the EPA has yet to formally rule on California's request, the Bush administration has already signaled its intentions. After the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the EPA has clear authority to regulate the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, President Bush ordered federal agencies to develop proposals for regulating vehicle emissions by the time he leaves office in January 2009. In other words, he plans to pass the problem of global warming on to his successor.

Bush should rethink this strategy of denial and delay, and grant California's request. If the federal government is unwilling to lead the fight against global warming, it should at least get out of the way and let the states move ahead.