From  pressoffice at greenparty.org. Green Party in England & Wales - US Supreme Court to Make First Statement On Climate Change.

“More than a dozen states and environmental groups are taking the US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to court in a bid to ensure it treats CO2 from automobiles as a pollutant harmful to health, under the federal Clean Air Act.” Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor commented: “The ruling could be one of the court’s most important ever on the environment, heralding a new era in the way the US addresses global warming.

“The Bush administration insists that voluntary measures and new technologies can provide a solution to climate change, but we urgently need a regulatory framework, backed by legal measures, to really bring carbon emissions down.

“It is encouraging that the Supreme Court recognise the weight of compelling evidence around carbon emissions, and are prepared to consider doing something about it.”

The states involved, which together account for more than a third of the car market in the US, say the Clean Air Act makes clear carbon dioxide is a pollutant that should be regulated if it poses a danger to public health and welfare. They argue it does so by causing a warming of the earth. The administration maintains that unlike other chemicals that must be controlled to ensure healthy air, carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is not a dangerous pollutant under the federal law. And, officials argue, even if it is, the EPA has discretion over whether to regulate it, considering the economic costs involved. The agency should not be required to “embark on the extraordinarily complex and scientifically uncertain task of addressing the global issue of greenhouse gas emissions” when voluntary ways to address climate change are available, the administration argued in its filing with the high court.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit were California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. They were joined by a number of cities including Baltimore, New York City and Washington D.C., the Pacific island of America Samoa, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5118792.stm

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