More science for the EPA to ignore

One of the reasons the federal Environmental Protection Agency used to squash California's request for a waiver to implement tough new greenhouse gas emissions rules was the argument that California can't make the case that its circumstances are special. But a new study from a Stanford scientist makes exactly that claim, fueling the debate over the health effects of air pollution attributed to climate change.

The study, by atmospheric scientist Mark Jacobson, suggests that in fact, California will be affected more severely than other regions by the heat-trapping impacts of carbon dioxide emissions.

The study probably won't have any direct impact on the lawsuit the state just filed against the EPA -- it's only one study, and it wasn't published in time to be part of the state's argument in favor of the waiver. But it does raise the ante in what's becoming a blood feud between California's progressive governor and environmental regulators and the Bush administration's Environmental Politics Agency.