Illinois Joins California on Greenhouse Gas Case

At the annual IEC Environmental Leadership Dinner in October, the keynote speaker, former California State Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, told the crowd about how the federal EPA has given her state a series of waivers over the years, allowing California to fight smog by requiring green technologies ranging from catalytic converters to unleaded gasoline. When it came to the nation's first greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and light trucks, however, the EPA balked.

And so last week California sued the federal government for a waiver under the federal Clean Air Act to be allowed to implement a 2002 state anti-pollution law regulating greenhouse gases. Illinois is one of 14 states that have joined California in its lawsuit. If California is successful in being able to set its own greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, it would pave the way for Illinois to join the 11 other states that have adopted similar legislation.