Governor blasts plan to stymie California from cleaning its air

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

House Democrats, in their first draft of new energy legislation, would wipe out California's landmark global warming law -- despite their California speaker's promises that her party would use the state as a model to combat climate change.

The legislation would pre-empt California and 11 other states from implementing laws requiring automakers to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets. The bill would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from granting the states waivers to put their climate change rules into effect.

California officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental aides, blasted the legislative proposal.

"We're concerned that Congress is trying to take away the state's right to clean our air and protect our citizens," said BreAnda Northcutt, a spokeswoman for the California Environmental Protection Agency. The bill "appears to be singling out California's climate action efforts, and the 11 additional states that have adopted our standards, and tying our hands."

The move was an ironic twist on a familiar story for California. When Republicans ran the House, they regularly tried to pre-empt the state's laws on food safety labeling, the minimum wage and consumer privacy -- and Democrats often cried foul. But this new effort is being led by some of the Democratic majority's most senior lawmakers.

The battle of the statists.