Supreme Court Ruled on April 2, 2007 – Clean up Green House Gases

Linda Greenhouse wrote for the New York Times from WASHINGTON, D.C. on April 2, 2007 that inn one of its most important environmental decisions in years, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases, such as CO2, NOx and SOx in automobile emissions. The court further ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency could not sidestep its authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change unless it could provide a scientific basis for its refusal.

The Supreme Court of the United States voted 5-to-4 in favor of its decision that was a strong rebuke to the Republican President Bush administration, which has maintained that it does not have the right to regulate carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases under the Clean Air Act, and that even if it did, it would not use the authority. The ruling does not force the environmental protection agency to regulate auto emissions, but it would almost certainly face further legal action (and probably lose) if it failed to do so.

Writing for the majority voters of the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens said the only way the Environmental Protection Agency could “avoid taking further action” now was “if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change” or provides a good explanation why it cannot or will not find out whether they do.

Beyond the specific context for this case, the so-called “tailpipe emissions” from cars and trucks, which account for about one-fourth of the country’s total emissions of heat-trapping gases, the decision is likely to have a broader impact on the debate over government efforts to address global warming and environmental pollution from automobiles and electric generating power plants.