Supreme Court takes up global warming for first time

Wednesday, November 29th 2006, 11:12 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court stepped gingerly into the national debate over global warming on Wednesday, asking how much harm would occur if the Environmental Protection Agency continues its refusal to regulate greenhouse gases from new vehicles.

In the first case about global warming to reach the high court, a lawyer for 12 states and 13 environmental groups pressed the justices to make the government act, saying the country faces grave environmental harm.

Inaction is like lighting ``a fuse on a bomb,'' said James Milkey, an assistant attorney general for the state of Massachusetts.

Opening up an hour of arguments, Justice Antonin Scalia asked, ``When is the predicted cataclysm?''

It's not cataclysmic, but rather ``ongoing harm,'' Milkey replied.

Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre, representing the Bush administration, cautioned justices that EPA regulation could have a significant economic impact on the United States since 85 percent of the U.S. economy is tied to sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Garre also argued that EPA was right not to act given ``the substantial scientific uncertainty surrounding global climate change.''

Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out that regulating carbon dioxide emissions from new vehicles addresses just one aspect of an issue of global dimensions.

The argument by those pushing for EPA action on vehicle emissions might or might not be valid, but it ``assumes everything else is going to remain constant,'' Roberts observed.

Several justices questioned whether the states and environmental groups have met their legal burden to show they will be harmed by continued EPA inaction. Petitioners to courts must meet that threshold before the merits of a case may be addressed.

``We own property, 200 miles of coastline, that we're losing,'' Milkey said, trying to allay justices' concerns.

But Justice Samuel Alito, who with Roberts seemed most skeptical of the states' position, said that even in the best of circumstances, the reduction in greenhouse gases would be relatively small.

Milkey replied that even small reductions would be meaningful, pointing out that very small rises in the sea level would inundate significant portions of low-lying coastal land.

The Bush administration argued in court papers that the EPA lacks the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Even if it had such authority, the EPA still would not use it at this point because of uncertainty surrounding the issue of global warming, the administration said.

Global climate change is ``a controversial phenomenon that is far from fully understood or defined,'' trade associations for car and truck makers and automobile dealers said in a court filing signed by former Solicitors General Theodore Olson and Kenneth Starr. They backed the administration position.

Twelve states, mainly along the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, three cities, a U.S. territory and 13 environmental groups are arguing that the EPA ignored the clear language of the Clean Air Act. Under the 1970 law, carbon dioxide is an air pollutant that threatens public health and the EPA must regulate it, they said.

Michigan, home of the U.S. auto industry, and eight other states are backing the EPA.

Carbon dioxide is produced when fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas are burned. It is the principal ``greenhouse'' gas that many scientists believe is flowing into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate, leading to a warming of the Earth and widespread ecological changes. One way to reduce those emissions is to have more fuel-efficient cars.

A federal appeals court in Washington, in a fractured decision in 2005, upheld the administration's position. The Supreme Court is expected to rule before July 2007.

A separate case involving the EPA's claim that the Clean Air Act similarly does not give it authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants also is making its way through the federal courts.

Together, U.S. power plants and vehicles account for 15 percent of the world output of greenhouse gases, said David Doniger, counsel for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group involved in the Supreme Court case.

An association of electric utilities, the Utility Air Regulatory Group, opposes greenhouse gas regulation. But two individual power companies, Calpine Corp. and Entergy Corp., are on the other side.

Entergy said it has to be able to make plans 25 years in advance and that the EPA's current rules will not ``stand the test of time.''

The case is Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 05-1120.