Following the intervention of President Barack Obama signing a Presidential Memorandum requesting the Environmental Protection Agency to review the decision to deny the greenhouse gas waiver request submitted by California. The waiver will apply to California’s greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles produced in 2009.
Under the Clean Air Act, California is given the authority to introduce and enforce stricter standards for cars and trucks than current federal law dictates. The original request was submitted in December 2005 by the California Air Resources Board but was denied in March 2006 on the basis that there was no need for California’s greenhouse gas emissions standards to meet “compelling and extraordinary conditions”.




Barack Obama has been accused of watering down the climate change bill following pressure from coal and oil companies. The policy that originally would have required companies wanting to build greenhouse gas emitting power stations and producing carbon emissions to pay for a permit and penalised them per tonne for carbon emitted has been diluted following discussions in Congress.