High Court rebukes Bush on car pollution

High Court rebukes Bush on car pollution

seattletimes.nwsource.com

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court rebuked the Bush administration Monday for its inaction on global warming in a decision that could lead to more fuel-efficient cars as early as next year.

The court, in a 5-4 ruling in its first case on climate change, declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It's been a while since 8th grade US history, but I thought the US Supreme court only ruled on the constitutionality of laws. Is declaring carbon dioxide an air pollutant (duh) relevant to the Constitution?
Global warming is a problem (yes, it is), but it looks to me like the court is doling out political and social commentary from the bench.


seattletimes.nwsource.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by WellSee
It's been a while since 8th grade US history, but I thought the US Supreme court only ruled on the constitutionality of laws. Is declaring carbon dioxide an air pollutant (duh) relevant to the Constitution?
Global warming is a problem (yes, it is), but it looks to me like the court is doling out political and social commentary from the bench.

Obviously this was an activist decision and IMHO the Supreme Court had no business making it.

The suit appears to have come from States that have implemented their own greenhouse gas emmission standards suing the Federal government to make the EPA put some standards in nationwide. The EPA cliamed that it had no authority to do it since greenhouse gases weren't mentioned in the law as a pollutant.

The Supreme Court said that they do have the authority from the Clean Air Act and the states have the right to sue them to make them exercise that authority unless the EPA can prove the gases aren't pollutants.

At least that's what i get from it....I'm not sure where it's going to go from here though, I don't see how the EPA can be forced do something that isn't required by Congress even if the SCOTUS says it has the legal authority.