California attorney general to sue EPA

The region's bustling ports have become a favored backdrop for environmental announcements, and that's not lost on California Atty. Gen. Edmund G. Brown Jr., who stood before the gantry cranes and containers Thursday and threw jabs at the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Brown officially started the clock ticking toward the filing of a suit against the agency for not regulating greenhouse gases emitted by ships, trucks and other equipment at the port:

"Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel and cause massive greenhouse gas pollution. ... Because Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly disregard its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action.”

The EPA has put off action to regulate greenhouse gases, and last month announced it was soliciting comments on ways to approach the issue.

It's been a bad week for the agency, and some might say a bad seven months or so, since it rejected California's attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has publicly accused EPA Director Stephen Johnson of deceiving and obfuscating on global warming issues and other matters, and joined with three other senators this week to demand his resignation.

-- Geoffrey Mohan

Photo: Richard Hartog/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Frances]

Bravo! From closing its libraries to refusing to open email attachments on global warming the EPA under Bush is a joke! Perhaps Stephen Johnson doesn't know that EPA stands for Environmental Protection Agency NOT Enterprise Promotion Advocate! Make them do their job Jerry!

[Andy Eppink]

Crazy libs'll sink the economy with their irrational demands. A reasonable balance must be struck, but it's hard to believe people are dumb enough to so routinely be sucked in by the continuing histrionics of a whack job like Ol' Moonbeam.
My ND relatives are right. CA is the land of the fruits and nuts.

[Bryan T]

Federal authorities have much of the jurisdiction over environmental problems; it's time to force them to do their part in cleaning up what the private sector refuses to do.

[LBG]

Eppink is right about one thing: a reasonable balance must be struck. The Bush Administration and the EPA under them have been consistently so far from reality on this issue that such tactics have become necessary to get their attention. They may be able to ignore emails, but a court order is a little harder to sweep under the rug. As far as sinking the economy, Bush's $3 trillion war in Iraq has done a pretty good job in that regard. Perhaps Mr. E. should move back to ND where life is beautiful, all the time. We'll wake him up when the fight for our children's future has been won.

[rob]

Andy you are right that we need to strike a reasonable balance and if you have been any attention at all with what is going on at the ports you would realize that it is currently *WAY* out of balance in favor of the shipping companies. The people who live near that area are literally paying with their lives (not to mention respiratory diseases) for Americas love of cheap Chinese goods.

Money spent on cleaning up the air at the ports will be for itself 10 times over in the money saved on health care.

... Even the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is on board with the plan to cleanup with environment at the ports...

[Bill]

Hopefully the EPA will act and ban cars altogether in the one state with more than any other - California.

When cars are banned in Los Angeles and San Francisco, we'll see how residents like Boxer and Pelosi telling them what they can do while being driven around and jetting back and forth to D.C.

[Jonathan Garro]

I feel bad for people like the commenter Andy Eppink on this article, who looks at every issue through the lens of conservatives and liberals. There are some issues that people need to get over their own egos and allegiances and recognize as being universal problems. I am sure your relatives in ND have a great time wearing blinders and driving their Hummers.

[junior barnes]

Andy Eppink, you're right on one thing, reaching a reasonable balance. But because the balance is so far from reasonable at this point, unreasonable methods are required to achieve that reasonable balance. Sad how much effect an unreasonably right-loaded administration can have on a country and how much imbalance it can create.

[Thomas Mobley]

I say shut the ports down. I'm sure the Mexicans would love the mega pay jobs. Oh wait...you have all of the Mexicans there thanks to your pro-illegal immegrant views. Is there anything the people of California can't destroy on their trek to the perfect utopia?

[J R]

People live in North Dakota?

[PNW Trojan]

While we have hundreds of Navy vessels all around the world, the EPA has one, 1!!!! vessel - Bold - for coastal research and surveys. Even the Coast Guard - NOT a bastion of dependability, as it TOO has been corrupted by politics (3 Washington State Ferries were pulled from service, as their hulls were RUSTED THROUGH!!!, 20+ years past their serviceable life - despite Coast Guard inspections, no less). How anyone votes for the incumbent politician is beyond comprehension!!! The pollution in Cal is appalling...and, you still vote 'Democratic' - mind you the crooks that comprise the Republican Party, leave you little choice.

[Steve M.]

Simply put, "Shut-up and drill." I am tired of hearing about greenhouse gasses causing this mess. Hasn't anyboody taken a look at the sea floor and the increase in volcanic activity. Duh, heat rises, ice melts, ash pollutes and sulfur particulates don't help the atmosphere. I don't see China, Russia, India or any of the other major players putting catalytic convertors on their autos.

This is Darwinism or "survival of the fittest" at work. Drill, baby drill!!! Now if only Hummer would produce a liquid hydrogen powered H-2.

[tarwater]

" ...California Atty. Gen. Edmund G. Brown Jr., who stood before the gantry cranes and containers Thursday and threw jabs at the federal Environmental Protection Agency."

They love drama. What fuel, producing what combustion products, transported Brown to the "gantry cranes and containers"?

[Eppink Sux]

Without California, the US economy would crash. Thank God for us fruits and nuts.

Lets be real, nothing will happen with the lawsuit. Just vote out the Gas and Oil Party, and change will happen.