Supreme Court rules that EPA can regulate carbon dioxide
The Supreme Court of the US has just ruled 5-4 that the Environmental Protection Agency has the right to regulate CO2 emissions (NY Times story)
This is huge. The four dissenting justices (Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito) based their dissent on the standing of Massachusetts (and the other states) to bring the suit; they did not argue against the relationship between carbon dioxide and global warming. The EPA can still get away without regulating CO2 if they can show that they shouldn't, but it sounds as if their burden of proof is going to be quite high.
Edit: According to the LA Times, Scalia wrote a second dissent that said that the Court had no business deciding that carbon dioxide is related to global warming if the EPA said it wasn't. (Of course, there are the opinions of the scientists, and then there are the opinions of the Bush Administration's appointees, and they don't agree on the subject of climate change.)
This is huge. The four dissenting justices (Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito) based their dissent on the standing of Massachusetts (and the other states) to bring the suit; they did not argue against the relationship between carbon dioxide and global warming. The EPA can still get away without regulating CO2 if they can show that they shouldn't, but it sounds as if their burden of proof is going to be quite high.
Edit: According to the LA Times, Scalia wrote a second dissent that said that the Court had no business deciding that carbon dioxide is related to global warming if the EPA said it wasn't. (Of course, there are the opinions of the scientists, and then there are the opinions of the Bush Administration's appointees, and they don't agree on the subject of climate change.)