Posted on 12/05/2007 11:04:37 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Jerry Brown -- declaring instant victory on a tobacco suit Tuesday -- plans to file a complaint today demanding that U.S. regulators force airliners and other aircraft to spew lesser amounts of greenhouse gases.
The attorney general's aides said Brown's main focus of fighting global warming, which has focused mostly on carbon dioxide emissions from cars and industry, would move skyward today when he files a complaint jointly with other states and environmental groups against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington.
Brown is scheduled to announce the petition he's filing with the EPA at Los Angeles International Airport today.
Brown says in his complaint, released to MediaNews on Tuesday, that the EPA must "adopt regulations to control greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft on the shortest possible timeline" using "emission limitations and operational practices."
The complaint says aircraft account for 12 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. transportation sources and 3 percent of the nation's total such emissions. The United States is responsible for nearly half of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft.
Aircraft also emit other chemicals, and together the pollution has a greater global warming effect than if the emissions were at ground level.
The complaint further says that if the EPA tightens regulation under the federal Clean Air Act, it would influence aircraft operation internationally.
Representatives of some of the nation's major aircraft manufacturers and operators said they did not wish to comment on a complaint that has not been filed. But plane makers have long touted efforts to reduce polluting emissions.
The EPA does not have jurisdiction over the military, which was not mentioned in the complaint.
Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania will join California in filing the complaint. Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity are also participating.
Environmental groups said regulators need to act quickly on what they view as an important piece of the global warming battle.
Alice Thomas said Earthjustice is "asking the EPA to begin the process of reducing the global warming impact from one of the world's fastest-growing sectors."
"Limiting greenhouse gas pollution from aviation is an important part of the overall solution," said Andrea Treece of the Center for Biological Diversity.
In the separate action against the tobacco industry Tuesday, Brown accused New Jersey-based R.J. Reynolds of violating a 1998 legal settlement that banned the use of the well-known Joe Camel cartoon character and similar gimmicks in tobacco advertisements.
Brown filed the lawsuit, expected to be joined by other states, in San Diego.
The suit cited an illustrated advertising section in the November edition of Rolling Stone magazine, which combines pages of Camel cigarette ads with pages of magazine-produced illustrations on the theme of independent rock music.
The suit also cited material on an R.J. Reynolds Web site.
The landmark settlement seven years ago between 46 states and the tobacco industry reimburses states for smoking-related health care costs. The agreement includes a provision against using cartoons in commercials in an effort to prevent the industry from trying to influence minors.
Madness! Absolute and total madness!.........A liberal with a law degree is a most dangerous combination......
How much CO2 do these people emit while filing this nonsense? To bad
they can’t be genectly modified so that a 3rd leg would grow outa the top of their head, giving us a quick way of spotting them fore they can do any harm.
Don’t they have better things to do in CA other than wasting taxpayer money ? Isn’t the damn state already overburdened with debt as it is ?
A simple announcement that a suspension of all air travel to and from California will go into effect immediately (just in time for the holidays) because of a fear of AG lawsuits should fill up his phone banks enough to get the moron to shut up for awhile.
America is at that awkward stage.
It is too late to work within the system,
but too early to shoot the bastards.
- Claire Wolfe
I think that its well time enough for some good citizens to be thinking about the undergirding and overarching principles that drove the 2nd amendment, and what TJ had to say on the matter of a government run amuck ...
Perhaps moonbeam would like to set the example and stop breathing? It might not solve the total problem of CO2 emissions, but every little bit helps.
Yeah, sorta like a toddler with a loaded .357 Magnum.
Just like the toddler, everything is about how they FEEL, they have ZERO concept of the gravity of their actions, no concept whatsoever of the long-range impacts, nor do they care to find out. Just like the toddler, if you attempt to inform them, they stop their ears and begin chanting, "Nah-nah-nah-nah, I can't hear you, I can't hear you...!"
Take comfort; Hell awaits.
The scaredest I have ever been in my entire life was when my wife’s nephew, then about 5 or 6, got ahold of his grandpa’s shotgun one Christmas and came into the living room and pointed it at me......
As a very young boy, one of my brothers-in-law found his Dad’s gun (don’t know whether it was his semi-auto pistol or his bolt-action .30-06), and unwittingly blasted a tire on their car.
He had seen his grandpa out huntin and I guess he was gonna do the same..........My heart froze for a few seconds while I thought of whether the gun was loaded or not, it wasn’t........
Would it be safe to say that had a negative impact on his ability to sit down for the next day or so? :)
“...the pollution has a greater global warming effect than if the emissions were at ground level”
Is there a scientific basis for this assertion?
After seeing who is getting off most of these flights, that might not be such a bad idea. I wished most of these people would go to Vegas or Florida...We have enough people.
That being said, I would hate to live underneath the flight path or approach/departure to a major airport...Those folks are being dusted 24/7...Glad I don't.
bump
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