Danielle Murray

September 14, 2006

Opening Briefs filed in Global Warming Case

On August 31, 2006, petitioners filed opening briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court in the most important Clean Air Act case to date. The petitioners challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) interpretation of the Clean Air Act and subsequent refusal to limit greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The EPA, under the Bush administration, has refused to set limits on gases which contribute to global warming such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydroflourocarbons.

The EPA claims they have no authorization under the Clean Air Act to set such limits because the chemicals at issue are not "air pollutants" within the meaning of the Act. Also, the EPA contends even if they had such authority, they would not exercise it on account of various ad hoc policy considerations. The petitioners call the EPA's legal statutory interpretations and conclusions "distorted." They ask the Court to "correct EPA's legal error and to remand the case to the agency with directions to apply the correct legal standard to this matter; that is all."

Petitioners include Massachusetts; California; Connecticut; Illinois; Maine; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York; Oregon; Rhode Island; Vermont; Washington; the District of Columbia; American Samoa; New York City; Baltimore; the Center for Biological Diversity; Center for Food Safety; Conservation Law Foundation; Environmental Advocates; Environmental Defense; Friends of the Earth; Greenpeace; International Center for Technology Assessment; National Environmental Trust; Natural Resources Defense Council; Sierra Club; Union of Concerned Scientists; U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

More information about the case, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. EPA, and Petitioners brief, can be found at: http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/006/groups-states-file-opening-brief-in-supreme-court-global-warming-case.html