Sun-Sentinal.com
18 states ask court to force EPA to act on global
warming
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flagreenhouse0403sbapr03,0,1790495.story
In a petition prepared for filing Wednesday, the plaintiffs said last April's
5-4 ruling required the EPA to decide whether to regulate greenhouse gas
emissions, including carbon dioxide, from motor vehicles.
The agency has instead done nothing, they said.
"The EPA's failure to act in the face of these incontestable dangers is a
shameful dereliction of duty," Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.
The petition asks the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to require the EPA to act
within 60 days.
In last year's decision, the Supreme Court ruled the EPA has the authority to
regulate emissions from new cars and trucks under the Clean Air Act, and said
the reasons the agency gave for declining to do so were insufficient.
EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the Supreme Court
required the agency to evaluate how it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions
from cars and other vehicles but set no deadline.
The agency plans to include the evaluation in a broader look at how to best
regulate all greenhouse gas emissions, not just those from vehicles, he said.
Otherwise, a mash of laws and regulations could emerge rather than the
"holistic" approach the administration favors.
"We want to set a good foundation to build a strong climate policy of
potential regulation and laws we can work toward and actually see some
success," Shradar said.
The plaintiffs in the latest court action include Coakley
and attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut,
Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico,
New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington
and the District of Columbia, and also representatives of the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection and the cities of New York and
Baltimore, and several environmental organizations.