Good News

Science is back! Obama is going to reverse a Bush decision to not grant a waiver to California and 13 other states suing to regulate tailpipe emissions.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge and signifies a sharp reversal of Bush administration policy. Granting California and the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his stamp on environmental policy.

Mr. Obama’s presidential memorandum will order the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration’s past rejection of the California application. While it stops short of flatly ordering the Bush decision reversed, the agency’s regulators are now widely expected to do so after completing a formal review process.
Auto makers complain that they will have to make two different types of cars. This is not true.

The car makers could do the right thing and make all the cars to the California standard.
Update: Here is a list of the fourteen states. CA(11.95%), NY(6.31%), PA(4.06%), NJ(2.84%), WA(2.52%), AZ(2.07%), MA(2.11%), MD(1.84%), OR(1.23%), CT(1.15%), NM(0.64%), ME(0.43%), RI(0.35%), VT(0.20%). They make up 37.7% of US population. If you add the six states that Kos diarist populista says are considering joining, you get 51.87% of US Population. Those states are FL(5.97%), NC(3.08%), MN(1.70%), CO(1.59%), IA(0.98%), UT(0.87%). The population percentages come from this wikipedia page.