Hot Seat: The Supreme Court’s First Brush with Global Warming

Twelve states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to limit carbon dioxide emissions, the pollutant responsible for global warming.

The Supreme Court will have to decide if the states have the right to sue the federal agency for its inaction and if that idleness has indeed caused harm to the states.

It’s our government’s job to set standards, and sometimes those regulations are created by Congress, sometimes The White House, and sometimes, even the courts affect policy.

If the Court were to decide that the EPA has shirked its duties, it would, in turn, force the EPA to begin regulating carbon dioxide (CO2). The Bush Administration asserts that the EPA does not have the power to regulate CO2 and that greenhouse gases are not air pollutants that are controlled by the Clean Air Act.

The states beg to differ. They say that the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set standards for any air pollutant that "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare."

Supreme Court arguments

The Court has not yet ruled on this case, but it’s looking like the justices are fairly evenly split.

Chief Justice G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas doubt the plaintiff’s standing, saying that the states have not proven their injury, or the imminent danger of global warming caused by the EPA’s failure to regulate.

Roberts and Alito argued that EPA regulation may not make a dent in the global warming problem and that other factors, such as the industrialization of China, have a much greater impact. According to this reasoning, the EPA cannot be held responsible for a worldwide problem with many contributing factors.

On the other side, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, Stephen G. Breyer, and David H. Souter seemed to feel that the states have standing because EPA regulation would probably reduce the damages. Justice Souter explained that it is "a question of more or less, not a question of either/or," he argued, "They don’t have to stop global warming. [The States’] point is that it will reduce the degree of global warming and likely reduce the degree of loss."

States versus federal

Global warming presents a difficult problem for states since widespread environmental regulations usually occur at the federal level while the effects of global warming (such as asthma, flooding, and drought) are likely to be dealt with at the state level.

States have some control over cars and trucks’ carbon dioxide emissions (think emissions testing to get your vehicle registration), but they can’t set standards for car makers or neighboring states, even though both impact air quality.

What recourse do states have if there is little federal regulation of greenhouse gases? Should they have to wait until it is an "imminent" threat? Some would argue that global warming is already an imminent threat. What does the science say?

The Science

Many of us already know the basics behind global warming. As more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere, more infrared radiation is trapped, causing rising temperatures.

Since the first studies were conducted in the late 1950s, the atmosphere's CO2 levels have been rising, from about 300 parts per million to 381 parts per million. But what does this mean? The consequence is drastic environmental (and consequently, economic) changes such as melting glaciers. For example, the Himalayan glaciers are responsible for 40 percent of the world's drinking water and their disappearance could cause a water shortage for billions of people. (Even here in the United States, in Alaska's Glacier National Park, some glaciers have completely disappeared already.)

Further, global warming has caused an overall rise in temperature that not only produces dangerously hot record-highs in summer, but also warmer oceans. And warmer oceans cause more violent storms: as water temperatures go up, wind velocity intensifies, and so does storm moisture condensation. According to an MIT study, hurricanes and typhoons have increased in duration and intensity by about 50 percent since the 1970s.

The devastating effects of warming are many, including flooding, drought, wildfires, and animal and plant extinction, even the rise of infectious diseases. Since vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks, algae, and other germ-carrying life forms increase and spread with warming temperatures, they are more likely to come into contact with people and cause disease.

For more on global warming, click here.

What do you think?

Should the EPA regulate greenhouse gases? What can states do to protect themselves from global climate change? What regulations would you like to see?

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Article Posted on: 12/2/2006