This article originally provided by americanprogressaction.org

February 29, 2008

EPA Continues to Ignore Supreme Court Ruling to Regulate Co2

Since 1999, environmental groups have been pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but the EPA has consistently rejected their pleas. Last April, the Supreme Court overruled the EPA and found the agency had violated the Clean Air Act in "its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change," ordering it to regulate carbon dioxide. Nearly a year later, however, the EPA has failed to act. "[A]t this time, the agency does not have a specific timeline for responding to the remand," the EPA's Robert Meyers wrote this week in a letter to environmental groups. The agency's long history of inaction pushed the state of California to ask for permission to start regulating carbon dioxide emissions on its own, but the state's request was denied by the EPA in January. Sierra Club attorney David Bookbinder responded to Meyers's letter, stating, "Unless EPA owns up to its obligations immediately, we will be forced to take the administration back to court."