As if to further cement its seven-year denial about the impact of climate change, the Bush administration has now denied California permission to develop its own stricter guidelines for vehicle emissions. 

California’s program was intended to take effect in 2009 and aimed to cut greenhouse gases from vehicles by nearly one-third by 2016--double the reductions federal standards would achieve, according to The New York Times. 

The Clean Air Act of 1970 allows California to set stricter standards than the federal government as long as it first receives a federal waiver. Once that waiver is granted, other states can adopt the same standards. In anticipation of a waiver, 12 other states — including New York — had adopted California’s greenhouse gas standards and a half-dozen more are in the process of doing so. 

This latest decision leaves these states stuck with the sub-par standards contained in last year's energy bill.  The states and environmental groups will likely challenge the decision in court.