In a landmark decision in one of the most important environmental cases ever heard by the Supreme Court (Mass v. EPA), the Court ruled today that the Clean Air Act gives the U.S. EPA the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants from cars.
“This decision is a major turning point in our nation’s fight to protect future generations from global warming. For six years, the Bush administration has toed the oil, coal and auto industry line on global warming, but this decision means that we have no more excuses,” said Lauren Ketcham, Environment New Mexico advocate. “States haven’t been waiting around to address global warming. Now, we can finally start to put the many solutions we have at our finger tips to use in fighting global warming at the federal level,” Ketcham continued.
U.S. PIRG, the federal advocacy office for Environment New Mexico, is a petitioner in the case.
The Court ordered the U.S. EPA to reconsider its decision not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars; the full implications of the decisions will be argued in future cases and within the EPA.
In the meantime, the ruling will have major implications for rules to reduce global warming pollution from cars in California and the ten other states that have the program and for New Mexico, which is considering adoption. Under the Clean Air Act, states may adopt California’s tailpipe emissions standards in lieu of minimum federal standards. Ten states have adopted California’s standards to reduce fleet-wide global warming emissions from new vehicles.
“We applaud the Supreme Court for recognizing the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. This finding could open up major opportunities at the state level and for the federal government to take action on global warming,” said Ketcham.
U.S. PIRG is a petitioner in the case, along with New Mexico and 11 other states (CA, CT, IL, MA, ME, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT and WA), cities and environmental organizations. For a complete list of the petitioners and other documents related to the case, go to www.cleancarscampaign.org and click on “Court Action.”
