Attorneys general from 14 states, along with various state and city authorities, last Monday jointly urged the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action to address global warming. California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown called for a reversal of what he called EPA’s “shameful inaction” by the federal agency.

In addition to the 14 attorneys general, the California Air Resource Board (CARB), four other state environmental agencies, and Minneapolis, Seattle, Salt Lake City and New York City joined in the letter to EPA urging it to lay out key principles that the federal agency should adhere to in regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Separately, Brown submitted a comment letter to EPA in response to a 500-page advance notice of rulemaking for regulating GHG emissions under the federal Clean Air Act that was issued last summer by the federal environmental agency. Both letters called for EPA to take four specific actions:

Calling the federal Clean Air Act one of the nation’s most successful regulatory programs, the joint letter from the states and other governmental agencies said they “strongly disagree” with the outgoing Bush administration EPA head’s conclusion that the federal air pollution law is allegedly “ill-suited” to regulate GHG emissions.

The officials contend that the federal EPA’s own staff analysis concluded that the Clean Air Act “provides EPA with flexibility to regulate through a variety of approaches, including performance standards, operational controls, market-based incentives and other measures, and also to tailor its traditional strategies to suit the particular challenges posed by GHG emissions.”

“After eight years of foot-dragging, it is time for the EPA to reverse its shameful inaction on global warming and use its authority under the Clean Air Act to combat dangerous climate change,” Brown said.

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