States' effort to force Bush to regulate greenhouse gases rejected

[Robbien]

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- States lost a bid Friday to force the Bush administration to regulate heat-trapping industrial gases that have been blamed for global warming.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Environmental Protection Agency acted properly when it rejected a nonprofit group's petition. The group had asked EPA to impose new controls on carbon dioxide and other automobile pollutants that scientists say trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.

. . .

After EPA rejected the group's petition, 12 states and several cities argued that EPA should regulate those gases under the Clean Air Act and hadn't justified its decision not to. The three federal appeals judges ruled otherwise.

Judge A. Raymond Randolph, writing for the panel, and Judge David Santelle, who disagreed with Randolph on some of the issues in the case, each sidestepped the larger question of whether EPA lacks authority to order reductions in greenhouse gases.

In August 2003, the EPA's top lawyer issued an opinion that the agency lacked that authority, a reversal of a Clinton administration legal opinion that the gases should be regulated. The Bush administration used that opinion to justify denying the request from the nonprofit group, International Center for Technology Assessment, and other groups seeking new federal controls on auto emissions.

http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=79C06B31-9C15-4A48-A17E-80BF3A78741D

[VegasWolf]

1. Bush says that if there really were greenhouse gasses then the

bible would discuss them.

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate topic

from yesterday-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1630211