In a landmark
decision in one of the most important environmental cases ever heard by the Supreme
Court, 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 is their day of reckoning,” said Jason Barbose, global warming
advocate at Environment California. “We
can now finally start to put the many solutions we have at our fingertips to
use in fighting global warming,” Barbose continued.
The Court ordered the U.S. EPA to reconsider its
decision not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars. In the meantime, the ruling will have major
implications for rules to reduce global warming pollution from cars in California and nine
other states. Under
the Clean Air Act, California may adopt tailpipe
emissions standards that are stronger than the minimum federal standards; other
states can then adopt California’s
standards. Nine states have adopted California’s standards
to reduce fleet-wide global warming emissions from new vehicles by 25 percent in
model year 2009, rising to 30 percent in model year 2016.
“The Bush administration should immediately give California the green
light to put our clean cars program into effect. Any delay is completely unjustified given
today’s ruling,” said Barbose.
Environment
California’s
national advocacy office, U.S. PIRG, is a petitioner in the case, along with a
coalition of states, 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.”
