Carbon Credits Government Watch

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court finally smashed the Bush
Administration’s defences on global warming.

In a 5-4 vote, the Court decreed that carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions are "pollutants" under the Clean Air Act. The court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to start curbing those pollutants, which are wreaking havoc with our climate. It dismisses the Bush Administration's leading excuse for doing nothing about global warming: namely, that it has no power to control carbon pollution. The Supreme Court has now ordered the EPA to stop relying on illegal excuses and to start getting serious about the problem of global warming pollution from new cars, SUVs and trucks.

It also removes the major obstacle to measures in California and ten other states that would slash greenhouse gas emissions from car exhaust.

Fundamentally, the EPA has always had a constitutional duty to act on global warming and it has been subverted by the Bush Administration willing to defy the Consitution in order to protect the fossil fuel industry. Even the President's stacking of the Supreme Court with ideologically-selected judges, as has been done in this country, was not enough to save him.