Countdown on Climate Change

A couple of my friends have "coundown watches" that are counting down the seconds to the end of Bush's term. I only hope that his term ends as scheduled; I have a real fear that he might pull something to stay in office. More on that in another post.

One reason to celebrate 1/20/09's becoming more imminent is for the sake of the earth. The Bush administration's blatant disregard for the environment has softened a bit with the political winds, but his practice is to disregard, or even change, the findings of science to fit his political ends. The latest salvo is the EPA's decision yesterday to deny California and 14 other states the right to regulate greenhouse gases from cars. My home state of Oregon is included in this initiative, which will do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this country than any other.

Why should the federal government care if a state wants to enact regulations more strict than the federal standards? Federal leadership on these issues has been anemic over the past seven years, leading more than 200 cities and 25 or so states to enact their own environmental standards. Now the party that has always trumpeted "states' rights" has denied them the right to do this in a very crucial area.

California, Oregon, and other states have already indicated the intention to sue. As has been noted on at least a couple blogs, the fastest method of reversing this terrible decision lies with the 2008 elections.