For Immediate Release:
June 26, 2006

Contact:
Joseph Mendelson, CTA (202) 547-9359

 

 

Washington D.C. - The United State Supreme Court announced that it would hear a case against the EPA's failure to take action on global warming pollution. The case is being hailed as one of the most important environmental cases in decades.

 

The case began in October 1999 when the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) petitioned the EPA to take regulatory action under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that are released from motor vehicles. The petition put forward that such emissions should be regulated according to the Clean Air Act's statutory language because they are "air pollutants" reasonably anticipated to harm public health and welfare by causing global warming.

 

In August 2003, the EPA reversed a long-standing legal opinion and through an administrative ruling denied the CTA legal petition. In its denial, the agency stated that it had no legal authority to control global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.

In response, in the fall of 2003, twelve states, several cities and over a dozen environmental organizations, including CTA, joined forces to challenge the EPA's unprecedented denial of the original petition. Last year, a three judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a splintered decision that failed to decide the core legal question of whether EPA may regulate global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it has accepted an appeal to review the lower court's ruling in the case.

 

"The Bush Administration has been engaged in a legal rope-a-dope on this issue since in 2000," said Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director of the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA). "The Administration's denial of its legal responsibility has caused real damage in the fight against global warming."

 

Global warming emissions have already been linked to stronger hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, and worsened air pollution. If left unchecked, global warming will cause rising sea levels, the melting of the polar icecaps, and a host of other environmental problems that are beginning to seriously affect the lives of virtually every American.

States and other organizations challenging the EPA decision include Massachusetts, California, New York, the Sierra Club, NRDC and Greenpeace.

 

Case chronology and legal briefs available at:
http://www.icta.org/global/warm.cfm (Click on "Legal Actions")

 

Original legal petition available at:
http://www.icta.org/doc/ghgpet2.pdf