Boxer

A few weeks news broke that the U.S. Department of Transprtation was conducting a Congressional lobbying campaign to try and fight California's waiver request to fight greenhouse-gas emissions from cars. Requests for documents resulted in over 70 pages of internal memos and emails, where agency officials openly state their opposition to California's request. They directly coordinated with the auto industry to create a list of legislative targets for lobbying. LADN:

The documents also show that the Auto Alliance — a trade group representing Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler and others — provided the agency with a breakdown of auto facilities and employees in each congressional district. DOT officials then used the list to systematically target lawmakers likely to oppose California's request. "Just hit the members/senators with the really big facilities. No need to call those with small distribution centers or anything," Simon Gros, deputy chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, instructed his staff in a June 7 e-mail.

Naturally, California leaders are fuming over this illegal interference and Rep. Henry Waxman who's work on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee exposed this scandal had this to say:

"This initial set of documents reveals that the Bush administration was working hand in glove with the auto industry against state efforts to fight global warming," Waxman said Monday, adding that the committee intends to acquire more materials from the DOT. Waxman had previously questioned the legality of using federal resources to lobby members of Congress.

Speaker Nunez called it "dirty tricks" and Boxer a "inappropriate manipulation" and said the "Bush administration must be held accountable once again for their underhanded effort to block environmental progress." Even Arnold called himself "very concerned" about the lobbying efforts.

Meanwhile, the DOT tried to defend their actions, saying that they were just upholding their obligation to inform "the public and their elected representatives about this important issue". You say inform and I say lobby. Waxman is sure to use these documents for more hearings and who knows what else will come out of the additional document request. California is still waiting for final word on the waiver. Arnold is prepared to go with a lawsuit if we are denied.

It is official, Rep. Dingell and Rep. Boucher have dropped their effort to overrule California's tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions law, at least for now. Their proposal ran into the strong opposition from Speaker Pelosi, environmentalist and California elected officials. They had continued pushing the issue until yesterday, when they pulled it out of the energy bill currently under consideration in the House. SFChron:

The pair sent a memo on Monday to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, saying they would soon release a final version of the Democratic energy bill that would not contain the proposal to pre-empt California and other states from their plan to cut greenhouse gases. Other contentious provisions also would be dropped, the lawmakers said.

"You will note that a number of the more controversial issues we raised, such as coal-to-liquid fuels, fuel economy standards, a low-carbon fuel standard, various mandates, and the role of federal and state programs, are not included," Dingell, the committee chairman, and Boucher wrote in the memo.

The low-carbon fuel standard was the one getting the most heat, though Obama's position on coal-to-liquid fuels has certainly been in the news. I am a little perplexed about the dropping of fuel economy standards from the discussion. The current standards are woefully inadequate and changing them has been a priority for the Democratic leadership.

Those issues will return -- perhaps for another clash -- as soon as this fall when Pelosi has said she wants the House to consider a more comprehensive global warming bill.

"This will also give us the needed time to achieve consensus on these issues if at all possible," Dingell and Boucher told their colleagues.

Oh goodie. Boy are they stubborn.

I am fairly certain that the pair will not be able to coalesce support around overriding California's law. Speaker Pelosi is in charge and her opposition will realistically leave little chance of its revival. They will surely try, but this may be the real end of the line for this proposal.

Yesterday, Arnold announced his support for a new fossil fuel plant off the coast of California. Today, he was swooned over in DC, giving a speech in conjunction with his NEWSWEEK cover on the environment. Arnold's attitude towards the environment is to have your cake and eat it too. In Arnold's green world, you can drive a muscle car or a Hummer and save the environment. There is no personal sacrifice necessary.

Much has been made of Arnold's appearance on Pimp My Ride, where they convert a 1965 Chevy Impala into a biodiesel machine.

The April 22 episode of "Pimp My Ride" will show that "biofuel is not like some wimpy, feminine car, like a hybrid," Schwarzenegger said in the current Newsweek cover article. "Because the muscle guys, they have this thing: `I don't want to be seen in the little feminine car.'"

Today he said:

"We don't have to really go and take away the muscle cars, we don't have to take away the Hummers or the SUVs or anything else, because that's a formula for failure," he said. "Instead, what we have to do is make those cars more environmentally muscular."

The rebuilt car gets 25 MPG, granted that is biofuel, but there is simply not enough biofuel lying around to be able to repeat this experiment on a large scale. The owner will have to work hard to find a steady supply of fuel for his vehicle. It is not as if he can just pull up to any ole gas station.

The 25 MPG is actually the current average fuel economy standard for all vehicles. It is much lower than the proposed increases to the CAFE standards. Sen. Feinstein and Boxer are both co-sponsors to bill which would increase the fuel economy standards for all vehicles, including SUVs and sedans to 35 MPG by model year 2019.