Calif. to sue EPA 3rd time over slow action on pollution rules

Calif. to sue EPA 3rd time over slow action on pollution rules California Attorney General Jerry Brown on Thursday announced plans to file suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 'continuing to wantonly ignore its duty' to impose national regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft, ocean-going vessels and construction and farming equipment.
   Brown said the suit, which will be filed in Washington following a federally mandated 180-day waiting period, is meant to spur the EPA into action after three petitions to the agency on the greenhouse gas emissions failed to elicit regulations.
   The suit mirrors two similar suits recently brought by California and two other states against the EPA alleging the agency failed to act to impose automobile and truck emissions rules.
   Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that said the EPA does have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emission from a wide range of vehicles, Brown petitioned the federal agency to initiate regulatory action in October and December 2007, and January 2008.
   According to Brown, the EPA has done little more in response to the petitions than issue a 'pathetically weak' notice of rulemaking two weeks ago.
   'The EPA's proposal contains hundreds of pages of discussion and facts, but never once states that greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare — the legal foundation for fashioning regulations,' Brown said. 'Ignoring California's petitions violates the Clean Air Act which requires the agency to adopt standards for greenhouse gases.'
   The EPA, under the federal Clean Air Act, has 180 days to respond to California's allegations of unreasonable delay. If the agency does not act within the waiting period, California can file its suit.
   The state is demanding that the EPA make a formal finding that 'industrial equipment, ships and aircraft emit greenhouse gas pollution that endangers public health or welfare,' and adopt 'timely regulations' to controls such emissions. ' Keith Higginbotham