Bush Administration Rejects California’s Global Warming Clean Cars Rules

At what point did our politicians STOP supporting state's rights? And who is employed by the EPA these days? I'm reposting this from www.itsyournature.org

Here's the NRDC Press Release:

EPA Sticks Thumb in Eyes of Governors Representing Half of All Americans, Says NRDC

WASHINGTON (Dec. 19, 2007) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today denied California's request for routine permission to implement its clean cars law (AB 1493). This rejection represents bald-faced political interference with California's decades-long authority to enforce its own clean air rules, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Following is a statement by David Doniger, NRDC Climate Center Policy Director:
"The California standards are the single most effective step yet taken in the United States to curb global warming. By blocking the California standards, the administration has stuck a thumb in the eye of 18 governors from both red and blue states who have led the way on global warming by adopting these landmark rules.
"California and the 17 other states have led the way to cut global warming pollution from new automobiles. Their right to do so has been affirmed by three federal court decisions this year, including the Supreme Court's landmark ruling that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant, just like any other. The new energy law signed by the president today explicitly preserves this Clean Air Act authority.
"The EPA administrator claimed the new energy law sets a standard of 35 miles per gallon and thereby precludes California's more effective standards. That is just plain wrong. The energy law only sets a fuel economy floor. It requires the administration to set standards of 'at least 35 miles per gallon,' expressly giving the administration the power to go farther. And the law expressly preserves California's authority under the Clean Air Act to set independent, stronger standards to meet the challenge of global warming. Let's be clear: the California standard is stronger and more effective than the 35-mile-per-gallon floor established in the new energy law.
"EPA Administrator Steven Johnson's claim that California lacks 'compelling and extraordinary conditions' is completely indefensible. California is suffering severe impacts from global warming. Mr. Johnson's 'policy preference' for a different approach is exactly the kind of illegal free-lancing the Supreme Court rejected in its landmark April decision on global warming."

where's the green spice?

The Spice Girls new single "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" is about how their friendships have endured over the years, in spite of the fights, failures and scandals. In the video, they writhe around in lingerie on fur rugs and dry-hump cold , angular modern furniture. With the exception of one horribly-staged shot designed to imply hot, lesbian action, the girls seem utterly unaware of each other and the very meaning of the song they're singing. The clip is as detatched from the song as America is from David Beckham.



I wonder if the visionary behind this clip is the same brainiac who decided not only to fly them to each of their tour locations in a private jet, but advertise it. In one of the boldest anti-environmentalist displays in recent memory, Virgin Records (once owned by cultural visionary and all-around green guy Richard Branson) is donating one Lear jet for each girl and her respective camp of kids, nannies, stylists, and egos.

According to Alex Lambie, who runs a website that helps consumers compare energy options, the combined flights will create nearly 10,500 tons of carbon dioxide. Granted, many stars have private jets, but you'd think these five girls would have at least been consciencious enough to fly together in one plane. These are Lear Jets afterall- flying palaces basically. If the girls can't get along for a few hours with that many square feet to escape from each other in, they've got problems that run deeper than anything they've sung about on either of their soul-baring, revolutionary folk albums.

Seriously, who's managing these girls? Upon their return to London last week, a plane that Virgin dedicated to them was unveiled. It's called Spice One, a name you might be familiar with if you're a fan of hardcore gangsta rap. The MC released albums in the nineties containing hits with names like "AmeriKKKa's Nightmare," "Dyin' 2 Ball," ""Fucked in the Game," "What in The Fuck" and "I'm the Fucking Murderer."
With all this sensible, well-managed behavior, you gotta wonder why they weren't invited to LiveEarth.