Legal News

California joins 16 states in suing EPA for inaction on global warming

By Jason Siegel

California joined 17 other states in suing the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming it has failed to adhere to a U.S. Supreme Court decision to decide whether to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The petition tries to get the D.C. appeals court to  require the EPA to act within 60 days.

They claim that the EPA has not followed the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA last year.

But the Supreme Court didn't set an deadline to comply, an EPA spokesperson told the Associated Press.

"The EPA said it would take action to regulate greenhouse gases by the end of last year but then broke its word and ignored the Supreme Court?s mandate," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a press release. ?The EPA has rejected the Supreme Court?s order, an action which is outrageous and unlawful. We?re taking the EPA to court to force it to do its job."

Brown highlighted another concern raised in the petition - that they have not followed the high court's mandate to determine "whether greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare."

According to Brown, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform already revealed that the EPA's made its endangerment determination but hasn't release it publicly. Brown called it "a textbook case of unreasonable delay."

The plaintiffs include Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, the District of Columbia, New York City, and the mayor and city council of Baltimore.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 03, 2008 (boomark / email).