United States Supreme Court Greenhouse Gas Decision

In a decision issued Monday, April 2, 2007, the United States Supreme Court held that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, and was arbitrary and capricious in declining to do so. A group of private environmental organizations petitioned the U.S. EPA in 1999, asking it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles, pursuant to U.S. EPA’s authority under § 202 of the Clean Air Act. In 2003, U.S. EPA declined, saying that the Clean Air Act does not authorize U.S. EPA to issue regulations to address global climate change, and, even if it did, U.S. EPA declined to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed.