Washington, other states sue EPA on warming

Officials of Washington and other states and jurisdictions are taking the EPA back to court to try to force it to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that rebuked the Bush administration for inaction on global warming.

In a petition filed Wednesday, the plaintiffs said the high court's 5-4 ruling last April required the Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether greenhouse gas emissions -- including carbon dioxide from motor vehicles -- pose a threat to public health and welfare.

The EPA has instead done nothing, they said. The original petition was filed in 1999 requesting the EPA address planet-warming pollutants.

"If you look at the history ... there's a lot of evidence that EPA is not being diligent in carrying out its duties under the Clean Air Act," said Leslie Seffern, an assistant attorney general for Washington.

The petition states that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson agreed to make the determination as to whether the gases pose a threat by the end of last year.

It also notes that EPA already has acknowledged that greenhouse gases cause warming, and that with climate change "severe heat waves are projected to intensify in magnitude and duration over portions of the U.S. where these events already occur, likely increases in mortality and morbidity, especially among the elderly, young, and frail."

"The states feel the EPA should issue the determinations it's already made, then work on the best ways to reduce emissions," Seffern said.

In last year's decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate emissions from new cars and trucks under the Clean Air Act, and said the reasons the EPA gave for declining to do so were insufficient.

In December, Johnson denied California's request for a waiver that would allow the state and others -- including Washington -- to adopt stricter rules limiting vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

Because Washington gets most of its power from dams, vehicles are the largest source of climate warming gases.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the Supreme Court required the agency to evaluate how it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and other vehicles but set no deadline.

The EPA plans to include the evaluation in a broader look at how to best regulate all greenhouse gas emissions, not just those from vehicles, he said.

Otherwise, a mash of laws and regulations could emerge rather than the "holistic" approach the administration favors.

"We want to set a good foundation to build a strong climate policy of potential regulation and laws we can work toward and actually see some success," Shradar said.

The plaintiffs in the latest court action include attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia, plus representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the cities of New York and Baltimore, and several environmental organizations.

The petition asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to require the EPA to act within 60 days.