Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/19/2011 7:44:53 PM PDT by smokingfrog
In a setback for environmentalists, the Supreme Court signaled that it would throw out a huge global-warming lawsuit brought by California and five other states that seeks limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in the South and Midwest.
Encouraged by the Obama administration's top courtroom lawyer, the justices said the problem of regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the Environmental Protection Agency. It is too complex and unwieldy to be handled by a single federal judge acting on a "public nuisance" lawsuit, some of them said.
A defeat for the lawsuit would put more pressure on the administration and the EPA to enforce limits on carbon pollution in the face of strong opposition from congressional Republicans, environmental advocates said.
"The stakes will be very high. The question is whether they can deliver," said David Doniger, a climate change expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The issue debated before the high court Tuesday was not whether greenhouse gases are causing global climate change, but who should regulate them. The decision involves politics, economics and science, the lawyers said.
"It's a question of tradeoffs," said Peter Keisler, a lawyer representing the power producers. "There is no legal principle here to guide the decision" if it were made by a judge.
Keisler, a former George W. Bush administration official, was joined by acting U.S. Solicitor Gen. Neal Katyal in urging the justices to throw out the lawsuit against the power plants as too sprawling.
"In the 222 years that this court has been sitting, it has never heard a case with so many potential perpetrators and so many potential victims," Katyal began. Everyone on the planet is an emitter of carbon dioxide, he said, and everyone is a potential victim of global warming.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
“Encouraged by the Obama administration’s top courtroom lawyer, the justices said the problem of regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Oh no............the Gestapo forms. Check that. The EPA has a thousand times more power than they did.
The right decision for all the wrong reasons. Any state who is pushing man made global warming is doing it for power and money just like the rest.
I agree, but it will make it easier to change the EPA if enough pressure is put on Congress (unfortunately many more seats in the house and Senate need to change hands) to muzzle the EPA.
Power Money hates humans. They want the planet all to themselves with just enough serfs to ensure their comfort.
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