The AGW deniers, nearly all of whom are right-wingers, are supposed to be for states' rights. It's interesting how they haven't supported states' rights during Bush's term. I guess if you control the executive and legislative branches, then suddenly you don't support states' rights anymore. Hypocritical indeed.

the EPA granting the waiver will be huge. Let's hope they do the right thing and grant it.

Mark :

I sincerely hope they do grant the waiver; it will be a most interesting experiment in social policy, and here is why : it goes to the root of the discussion we had a few days ago regarding fuel efficiency standards, which was that there is no miracle technology (silver bullet, if you will) to achieve this in a vehicle that a consumer will buy, especially in the time frame proposed. Unlike the other discussion where politicians were proposing to increase mileage standards to 50mpg which is simply unachievable, the reductions proposed by California can be reached. However, the vehicles will have to take a size and form which American consumers will find unappealing, particularly at the increased cost they will have to pay for them.

People may start holding onto their existing vehicles a lot longer, and if the cars produced for California and elsewhere are not profitable, the automakers (of which the American ones are already unprofitable) may pull out of those markets entirely. What will the government do then ?

The government can legislate mileage and pollution standards, but not what we, Americans, choose to drive. I for one, can't wait to see what happens.