Barbara Boxer: Green Groups Should Sue Obama

(NEWSER) - The Environmental Protection Agency today granted California the right to set its own strict emissions standards, an about-face from Bush-era policies, Reuters reports. In a sly rebuke to the previous administration, the EPA said the move rested on a “traditional legal interpretation of the Clean Air Act.” California first requested permission to go beyond federal standards in 2005; the waiver was denied in 2008. More»

He says standard will change anyway in 2013

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama handed the business community a surprise win today by asking the Environmental Protection Agency to scrap new smog standards that would force state and local government to improve air quality or risk losing federal funds, the Washington Post reports. "Work is already underway to update … the ozone standard in 2013," Obama explained. "Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered." More»

Activists furious over economic move

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration is delaying the implementation of new regulations on smog and toxic industrial boiler emissions, leaving in place policies enacted by George W. Bush. The EPA says it will now need until July 2011 to consider the smog rules, so that it can analyze further scientific and health studies, and until April 2012 to review boiler emissions. The New York Times sees the move as an attempt to shift rightward after the Democrats’ midterm shellacking. More»

Environmental rules, car dealerships among sticking points

(NEWSER) - Democrats from rural areas aren’t pleased with President Obama, and they’re threatening to show it by revolting against key parts of his domestic agenda, Politico reports. The tension boiled to the surface last week when rural and moderate Democrats decried plans to close 3,400 General Motors and Chrysler dealerships, but many are also angry about new regulations from Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency. More»

Apparent flip follows White House warning on economic fallout

(NEWSER) - The Environmental Protection Agency is backing away from emissions regulation after a White House memo warned of its economic consequences. As administrator Lisa Jackson presented today an agency finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, she told Congress this “does not mean regulation.” Previously, Jackson said such a discovery “will indeed trigger the beginning of regulation of CO2,” the Wall Street Journal reports. More»