California has always been on the cutting edge when it comes to auto
emissions. We've had tougher laws than the other states, to the point
where cars bought elsewhere had to be brought up to California emission
standards. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether California's
tough standards will live or die.
"California has already
taken bold steps to curb global warming pollution. But its authority to
do so comes from the clean air act, so one outcome of this case is that
the supreme court could take away California's power to regulate carbon
dioxide pollution," explained Sierra Club spokesman Eric Antebi. "But
it also could bolster California's case by forcing the Federal
Government to become a partner with california and a dozen other states
in attacking the global warming problem."
So California and 11 other states have joined with 13 environmental groups to force the issue before the Supreme Court.
"This
is a landmark global warming case," said Moira Chapin of Environment
California. "What's at issue is California's ability to regulate
tailpipe emissions from cars and light trucks and the ability of other
states to do the same thing."
The Supreme Court will essentially decide whether the EPA can regulate the carbon dioxide that comes from auto emissions.
The
auto industry declilned CBS 5's requests for interviews about the case.
But a White House spokesman said: "We still have very strong
resrvations about an overarching, one size fits all mandate about
carbon."
In addition, the auto industry is now saying they might
not be able to sell SUV's in California if they lose this suit over
greenhouse gas emissions.
"The auto companies have been very
reclutant to modernize their cars, trucks and SUV's and they've made
some wild accusations about what this would do," Antebi said. "But they
said the same thing about seat belts and they said the same thing about
air bags and they said the same thing about catalytic coverters and
they were always wrong."
Meanwhile, A spokeswoman for California
Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the case concerns a "critical
decision that will have global resonance."
Lockyer spokeswoman
Teresa Schilling said, "All eyes will be watching to see whether the
United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will finally be
forced to take action."
The high court's ruling in the case is expected by the end of June.
