Arizona sets rules to reduce emissions

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Owen said the state has the highest rate of growth of climate-changing greenhouse gases in the country.

As a result, he announced ADEQ would push to cut emissions from vehicles sold in the state, beginning in the 2011 model year.

Emissions of gases that cause global warming grew 56 percent between 1990 and 2005, said Owen, with 40 percent coming from vehicles.

The rules are being developed after an executive order on climate change issued in September 2006 by Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Arizona’s Climate Change Advisory Group unanimously recommended adoption of the standards, directly modeling California’s Clean Car Program.

ADEQ will promulgate rules by the end of the year or early next year, explained Owen, and a public comment period will ensue.

“We’ll take comments from car dealers and other stakeholders into account and then we’ll issue our draft rules and seek approval from the regulator control commission by Summer 2008,” he said.

“As long as we do technically what California has done and adopt the greenhouse gas reductions in a clean-car program, the regulation should go smoothly,” Owen said.

There is a curve in the process, Owen said.

“Our program won’t have force of law until EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) approves the California implementation of standards they have adopted,” Owen said.

In 2005, California mandated that new light-duty cars and trucks must have reduced carbon emissions by the 2009 model year to address the impacts of climate change.

California appealed to EPA the same year to provide them with approval for their clear-car program to regulate greenhouse gases. This is done in the form of a “waiver” that only that state can be granted under the federal Clean Air Act.

Other states, which do not have this exemption from federal law, can and have adopted California environmental standards. An example has been some state regulation of automotive smog causing emissions.

No California waivers have been denied by any presidential administration since the 1977 Clean Air Act.

The Bush administration, however, in conjunction with the Automotive Manufacturers Association, has actively lobbied Congress and state governors during 2007 to oppose California’s waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, even though the EPA is the agency that must approve or deny a waiver.

The automotive industry is also suing California in state court over the rule.

On Nov. 5, California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sued the EPA to force a decision on the climate change waiver on the grounds that climate change would be expected to cause more heat waves, fiercer storms, earlier snow pack melts, rising sea levels, worse fires and heavier smog.

Napolitano, along with 13 other states, intervened in the lawsuit on California’s behalf.

In April, the Supreme Court strengthened California’s position on regulating climate change through a Massachusetts ruling that states have legitimate interests to protect from global warming, such as coastlines and forests.

Napolitano’s goal, Owen said, is to reduce Arizona green house emissions to year 2000 levels by 2020 and to reduce to 50 percent below 2000 levels back to 2040.

Dick Kamp is Wick Communications environmental liaison. Contact him at bepdick@att.net. Comment on this story online at www.gvnews.com.