Obama Asks EPA to Reconsider California Emissions Waiver

President Barack Obama launched his administration's global warming agenda today during a White House ceremony in which he directed the EPA to review the Bush administration's decision rejecting California's request to enforce greenhouse gas emission standards for motor vehicles. If the EPA grants the waiver, it will require automobile manufacturers to begin producing and selling cars and trucks that get higher mileage than the national standard, and on a faster phase-in schedule. But by sending the matter back to EPA Director Lisa Jackson, Obama also indicated that he is aware of the auto industry's difficulties and willing to develop rules that would accommodate some of its immediate concerns. Beyond the so-called California waiver, Obama announced that he is moving forward with nationwide regulations requiring the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency standards, rules that the Bush administration decided at the last minute not to issue, and reiterated benchmarks he laid out in a weekend address, such as laying down 3,000 miles of transmission lines to help transport renewable power and saving taxpayers $2 billion per year by making 75 percent of federal buildings more energy efficient. Read more at CQ Politics