SACRAMENTO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown has made good on a threat he issued six months ago to sue the federal Environmental Protection Agency over vehicular greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

California and three others - Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Washington - filed suit against the EPA today in federal court to allow states to regulate GHG emissions from sources like tailpipes, AP/CBS reported today (Oct. 23). Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave six months notice to the EPA in late April, LNL reported.

The four-state suit aims to force the EPA to grant a "waiver" allowing them to set their own GHG-emission limits under the Clean Air Act. Brown said Monday that the Bush administration "had its head in the sand" on the issue of state regulation of vehicle tailpipe emissions.

Today's suit got a boost in Vermont last month when a federal court there allowed the state to set its own limits, LNL reported in mid-September. But such states still need EPA waivers since these court rulings do not pre-empt federal law.

Eleven other states have also voted to enforce the Golden State's stricter GHG limits on car-makers. California enacted in 2002 that, starting in 2009, vehicle GHG outputs must be cut 25 percent by 2020.