Where’s the environmental protection?
from Salon: By Amanda Griscom Little It’s a simple but powerful question: Does the Environmental Protection Agency have the power—and the obligation—to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act? Strangely, it still remains partially unanswered, even though it was a central issue in a landmark court case decided on July 15. In a major legal victory for the Bush administration, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against 12 states, three cities and more than a dozen environmental groups that had argued that the EPA was obligated by the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from cars and trucks, given the public health threat that climate change poses. “Sadly, this confirms what the administration has made abundantly clear for five years: They are not going to do anything on climate change, except either deny that it’s happening or say there’s nothing they can do about it,” said Sierra Club atto
