The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA to friends, relatives, and close neighbors, is being taken to task for caving in to pressure from the White House when it denied California’s effort to set the strictest auto emission standards in the nation.   Of course, I may have had some problems with the EPA in the past, but this time, we have, you know, testimony and subpoenaed documents and all sorts of fun things.   From the San Francisco Chronicle:

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, said the new details - revealed in sworn testimony from top EPA officials - showed that the White House “played a decisive role in the rejection of the California motor vehicle standards” in December.

Read the rest of this entry »

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commute via private jet between his mansion in Los Angeles and the state capitol in Sacramento may soon be coming to an end. The city of Santa Monica voted this past March 25th to ban large jets from the municipal airport the Governor has been using for his commute. But apparently the city resolution hasn’t been enough to deter Schwarzengger’s and others planes from continuing to use the airport, so the matter will be sent before a Federal Judge in a court case scheduled to begin May 15th.

Schwarzenegger’s brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, a Santa Monica city councilman who was one of the unanimous votes for the resolution said, “These guys aren’t listening so we have to lift the conversation to a different level”.

Read the rest of this entry »