Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency denied the petitions of seventeen states, including California and New York, to set their own vehicle emissions guidelines. California had passed legislation enforcing tougher emissions standards, but federal law requires states that wish to have different guidelines get a waiver from the EPA before enforcing those guidelines. The EPA dragged its feet for over a year, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to file a lawsuit against the EPA, demanding that it make a decision.

In denying the petitions of seventeen states, the EPA said that it didn't want confusion over a "patchwork" of different state emissions laws. This argument is bogus and assumes that there are no other regulations that consist of a "patchwork" of state laws. Automobile manufacturers would not have to worry about different laws; instead, they would manufacture vehicles that met the strictest of the state regulations. Have you ever noticed that your Little Debbie Snack Cakes contain a seal that says they were approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture? Here's an example of a "patchwork" of state laws that, somehow, an entire industry has managed to negotiate. Oh, pity the incompetent auto manufacturers!

Baked goods sold in Pennsylvania must pass more rigorous examination than baked goods sold in any other state, or nation-wide. Rather than complain to the federal government that Pennsylvania's laws would result in a "patchwork" of baked goods regulations, bakeries that sell products nationally instead opted to make their products to the specification of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the strictest of the state laws. The auto industry, unfortunately, is used to coddling by the government, and as such, will have nothing of "innovation."

The article from The New York Times also hints at a back-room deal between the Bush administration and auto manufacturers. Auto manufacturers mysteriously dropped their antagonism for the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, leading some to suspect that the administration traded this EPA ruling for support of the energy bill. As the Times notes, California has received fifty EPA waivers since 1970.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has faced off against killer robots, killer aliens, and Danny DeVito (twice!). President Bush is of no concern. That's why he, along with the governors of the other states that wanted their own emissions standards, is suing the EPA. Schwarzenegger claims that the fedreral energy bill doesn't go far enough toward addressing the issue of global climate change.

This ruling isn't particularly surprising, given that the Bush administration had to be taken to court (in Massachusetts v. EPA) before it would enforce the nation's laws; namely, laws regarding carbon dioxide emissions, which the EPA didn't consider a "pollutant."