Statement on EPA Response to Supreme Court Greenhouse Gas Decision

Washington, D.C., March 27, 2008—In response to a major
Supreme Court decision concerning regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the
Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency today it will be seeking
public comment on the issue.

Statement of Marlo Lewis,
CEI Senior Fellow, on EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson’s decision to
draft an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to discuss and
solicit public comment on EPA’s response to the Supreme Court global warming
case, Massachusetts v EPA.

CEI congratulates Mr. Johnson for his prudent decision.
In his letters today to Sens. Boxer and Inhofe and Reps. Dingell and Barton,
Johnson sets forth several complex issues that EPA must resolve
before finalizing its response to the Court. These include the
relationship between recent statutory changes in EPA’s responsibilities regarding
fuel economy and renewable fuel standards and the new auto emission
standards that might result from the Court case, and, above all, how such
emission standards might affect "many sources beyond just the cars and
trucks considered by the Court, including schools, hospitals, power plants,
aircraft, and ships."

EPA’s approach is consistent with and indeed respectful
of the Court’s directive in Mass. v. EPA. Contrary to the spin we often
hear, the Court did not order EPA to set emission standards for new motor
vehicles, nor even to make an endangerment determination concerning greenhouse
gases. The Court simply said that EPA
must base its "action or inaction" on reasons "grounded in the
statute."

Mr. Johnson correctly concluded that soliciting public input
through an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) is the best
approach, because it will provide "the appropriate care and attention this
complex issue demands."

Read Marlo
Lewis bio

Read more on Massachusetts
v. EPA

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Warming