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Supreme Court to Hear Case on Global Warming

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 06:00 CST

By Joan Biskupic

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court will take up its first-ever case on global warming today as it hears arguments from states and environmentalists seeking federal regulation of motor-vehicle emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency contends that the problem of carbon dioxide emissions and other so-called greenhouse gases is too big and falls beyond its statutory mandate.

The court's work on the case will focus on the scope of the federal Clean Air Act rather than the debate over emissions' impact on the climate. However, the justices' ruling could shape the U.S. government's role in a pressing issue of the day and ultimately affect whether automakers will be required to build cleaner-running cars and trucks.

As the Bush administration has resisted forcing industries to control the greenhouse gases that the National Academy of Sciences and numerous scientific groups say cause global warming, California and 10 other states have made plans to enforce their own regulations for tailpipe emissions.

The case could have ramifications for those states because the authority to regulate emissions, even on the state level, derives from the Clean Air Act.

The case's significance is reflected in the more than 20 "friend of the court" briefs filed from a range of industry groups, scientists, and conservation and recreation interests. Rising temperatures have been linked to numerous environmental problems, including glacier thaw in Alaska, reduced water supply in the Great Lakes and lost coastal land in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts, along with 11 other states, three cities and several environmental groups, brought the case in an effort to force the administration to regulate emissions.

The dispute revolves around a part of the Clean Air Act that requires regulation of "any air pollutant" from vehicles that "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." The act defines "welfare" to include effects on climate and weather.

The EPA says the provision does not cover greenhouse gases and says that even if it did, the agency has the option to not exercise its authority based on policy considerations.

The states say the Clean Air Act plainly authorizes regulation of greenhouse gases and that if the EPA were to step in, it could address "sources responsible for some 60% of this country's carbon dioxide emissions -- 23% from vehicles and the rest from the power plants left unregulated" by the EPA.

"We simply want the justices to tell EPA to get it right on the law," says Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University professor assisting the Massachusetts attorney general.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement says in a brief on behalf of the EPA that the agency lacks the authority to take on global climate change, given the "extraordinary economic and political ramifications" of the issue. He contends the states lack legal standing to press the case because they have not shown they will be harmed by the EPA's decision to not regulate emissions in this country, "which involves only a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions."

The Sierra Club and other environmentalist groups hope the case increases pressure on the White House and Congress to act on climate change.

Source: USA TODAY

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