Among the many controversial earmarks and line items packed into the omnibus spending bill signed into law last week, Congress appears to have slipped in a deadline for the EPA’s decision regarding the California waiver: June 30.

In a request that the court take judicial notice of this legislation filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep, et al. v. Goldstene, et al., (the auto industry’s ongoing challenge, on preemption grounds, to California’s auto emissions standards), California stated:

Section 424 of Division E of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, signed into law on March 11, 2009, states: “Not later than June 30, 2009, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall reconsider, and confirm or reverse, the decision to deny the request of the State of California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles.”

The request was filed in support of the state’s continuing efforts to have the case held in abeyance, or, alternatively, to delay further briefing until a decision is made by the EPA concerning the waiver. An opening brief was filed by the auto industry on Feb. 9. President Obama ordered the EPA to revisit the waiver, which would allow California and 15 other states to begin enforcing the so-called “Pavley” auto emissions standards (a.k.a. the California Clean Cars program), on Jan. 26. The Bush Administration denied the waiver in December 2007; however, the new EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, is widely expected to overturn that denial.