Bush Faces Legal Action over Global Warming

[marmar]

From the Independent (via Common Dreams):

Published on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 by the Independent / UK
Bush Faces Legal Action over Global Warming
by Andrew Buncombe

The Bush administration could be forced to take action on global warming using a 30-year-old piece of legislation to control the nation's vast emissions of greenhouse gases.

The US Supreme Court will today be asked to force the government to order its environmental regulatory body to control, as a matter of the public health, the amount of carbon dioxide pumped out by vehicles.

Amid a growing disparity between the Bush administration and many US states on the issue of global warming, it will be the first time the country's highest court has heard a case relating to climate change.

A number of environmental groups have joined with a dozen US states and several cities to try to force the government to make the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulate carbon emissions under the framework of the Clean Air Extension Act. This legislation, passed by Richard Nixon's administration in 1970, requires the EPA to develop and enforce regulations to protect the public from exposure to airborne contaminants.

The Bush administration has argued that the EPA lacks the authority under the act to regulate CO2 as a pollutant. The agency has argued that even if it had the authority, it would still have the discretion not to impose emission controls.

Carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases pumping into the atmosphere that a broad majority of scientists believe are responsible for raising the planet's temperature. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that most of the planet's warming over the past 50 years has been the result of human activity. .........

The rest is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1129-04.htm

[nam78_two]

1. K&R/nt

[OneBlueSky]

2. I can think of 50 or more OTHER charges that Bush should face legal action over . . . n/t

.

[Lautremont]

3. He should be facing the men in white with the big butterfly nets.

Such are the depths of his delusions on the subject of global warming.

[theophilus]

4. I'm sure that our great Leader will jump right into line on this.

I mean, how many times has he said that his "job" is to protect the American people? Catastrophic climate change is, after all, a greater threat to the U.S. and the world than "terraism". Part of this is sarcastic and part is not. Can you tell which is which?


I hope he and the rest of the corporate greedocrats (of whichever party} are forced to do what is best for all.....for a change!


Change will happen.

[Gregorian]

Commondreams is going full steam ahead!

I was stunned to see a Commondreams tv commercial last night. The babyboomer standing on railroad tracks saying how global warming won't affect him. He jumps off the tracks as the impending locomotive starts getting close, and there's a child right behind him on the tracks with the look of inescapable doom.

I can't get it out of my head that we've let this go on this far. And it's increasing faster than ever, right now. Three days of the Iraq war funding would put alternative energy research on the map. Expletive deleted.

[Tellurian]

5. I was deeply disappointed our state is not involved with the CO2 emission

regulations. As I just found out on our 12 o'clock news report.
Of course, we couldn't get rid of our Repub Governor in the last
election...so, the AG takes orders from his boss. no surprise there!

Even if the court rules the EPA can take action; next will come how
much co2 is too much, when should the EPA step in, should states police
their own emmissions...the list will be infinite, just wasting valuable
time of getting things done. <sad>