Supreme Court Rebukes Bush Administration
Back in December I pointed to a great Slate article that talked about how the U.S. Supreme Court was going to be deciding what powers the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency has with regards to regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
Turns out that despite decisions made by the previous government, George W. and his administration felt that CO2 was not a gas that the E.P.A. had jurisdiction over. They fought against the EPA’s authority to regulate it. From the Slate piece:
Section 202 of the Clean Air Act empowers the federal government to regulate “any air pollutant” that may “reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” In 1998, during Clinton’s presidency, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that the CAA gave it the authority to regulate carbon dioxide. In 1999, environmentalist groups petitioned the agency to regulate CO2 emissions from new cars and trucks, because they contribute to global warming. But in 2003, now under the Bush administration, the EPA denied this request, arguing, among other things, that it lacked authority to regulate greenhouse gases because they aren’t “air pollutants” as defined by the statute. The EPA also said it wouldn’t regulate CO2 emissions because of the “scientific uncertainty” of their effect on climate change.
So, back in November, both sides marched off to the Supreme Court.
And now, a couple of months later, the Supreme Court judges have weighed in with a decision that kicks Geoge W. right in the pills.
From the NYT piece:
The Supreme Court ruled today, in what amounts to a rebuke of the Bush administration, that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide from automobile emissions, and that it has shirked its duty in not doing so.
Seems like sanity is being brought to George Bush’s Whitehouse one legal decision at a time.
