IN AN UNUSUAL BUT WELCOME intervention, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to wade into the global warming debate. In its next term, the court will hear a lawsuit brought by California and other states against the federal government for failing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Courts usually defer to the discretion of administrative agencies to implement the law, but in this case such deference is outweighed by the administration's glaring dereliction of duty.
At issue is whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under federal law to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The EPA says it does not -- and that, by extension, neither does California, which is uniquely empowered by federal law to fight air pollution. Recent legislation to push the administration toward specific action has been stymied by Republicans in Congress. But the Clean Air Act, passed in 1970, charges the government with regulating substances that "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare," and it specifically includes those that might affect the "weather" or "climate."
The wording is pretty straightforward, but the case hinges on tricky questions of whether science has clearly proved that carbon dioxide from human activity contributes to climate change and whether that climate change endangers public welfare.
