On Wednesday Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Stephen Johnson denied California's request because the state did not meet certain legal requirements for being permitted its own emissions limits.

But Friday The Los Angeles Times cited several sources inside and outside the agency as saying that EPA staff who had studied the issue for months had advised Johnson that the opposite was true.

"California met every criteria ... on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers," one EPA staff member told the Times. "We told him (Johnson) that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts."

California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols told the Times she had learned from EPA staff that they were over-ruled by Johnson.

Nichols said the decision showed that President George W. Bush's administration "ignores the science and ignores the law to reach the politically convenient conclusion."

A spokeswoman for the EPA responded Friday by noting that as a 26-year veteran Johnson "values the technical and legal expertise of his staff.

"The Clean Air Act states the authority to decide waiver requests rests with him. He stands behind his decision," the spokeswoman said in a statement emailed to AFP.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he plans to sue the Bush administration in an attempt to overturn the EPA ruling, describing the decision as "legally indefensible."

California passed legislation in 2002 requiring automakers to reduce vehicle emissions 30 percent by 2016. Sixteen states had indicated they would adopt California's emissions levels if they were greenlighted by the EPA.

The Times quoted unidentified EPA staff as revealing that an internal briefing document had advised Johnson that even if he rejected California's request, the state would be likely to mount a successful legal challenge.

They advised Johnson to grant the waiver outright or to give California a temporary one for three years.

Instead, three sources told the Times, Johnson broke off consultation with his technical staff in the past month before making his ruling.

The Times reported that EPA staff believed Johnson made his decision after meetings between auto industry executives and Vice President Dick Cheney, and after a Chrysler executive sent a letter to the White House arguing why neither California nor the EPA should be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases.

"Clearly the White House said, 'We're going to get EPA out of the way and get California out of the way. If you give us this energy bill, then we're done, the deal is done,'" said one staffer.

The EPA has said legislation signed by President George W. Bush this week regarding fuel economy standards on vehicles was a step towards a "clear national solution" towards curbing greenhouse gas emissions rather than a "confusing patchwork of state rules."

However Nichols said in a separate interview quoted in Time Magazine on Friday that the two issues -- fuel economy levels and limits on greenhouse gases -- should not be confused.

"The [Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)] legislation which is part of the Energy Bill [passed by Congress] is not a greenhouse gas emission standard," Nichols said.

"It's a totally different thing. The argument that somehow because we now have a CAFE standard that means we shouldn't be regulating greenhouse gases, it just doesn't hold water, it makes no sense."

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