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This week on NOW:
For three decades, California has set the benchmarks for auto emission standards. But now, all that’s changing. In a series of recent cases, California’s regulations have been challenged in court, not just by the auto industry, but by the Bush administration. The opposition by the federal government takes on even more urgency now that California is leading the way to cut greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. NOW’s Sylvia Chase investigates why the Bush administration has joined forces with big business to block environmental legislation passed by the state and supported by its citizens. The report goes inside the struggle for citizens’ rights to control their environment and examines what the outcomes of these cases could mean for states following California’s lead.
Former head of the EPA under President George W. Bush and former Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman has had a long record of promoting public-private partnerships to advance the public good. David Brancaccio talks to Whitman about the environment and about the balance between the interests of the federal government and the fifty states. Whitman recently critiqued the Republican Party in her book IT’S MY PARTY, TOO, and she is chair of a political action committee by the same name that is “dedicated to supporting fiscally conservative, socially progressive moderate Republican candidates at all levels of government.” She also is currently co-chair of the National Smart Growth Council, serves as presidential appointee to the Millenium Challenge Corp., serves on the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, and is a partner in The Whitman Strategy Group.
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