Supreme court of the united states #3
Bush now is alone...ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
[April 2, 2007]
JUSTICE STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.
A well-documented rise in global temperatures hascoincided with a significant increase in the concentrationof carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Respected scientistsbelieve the two trends are related. For when carbon diox-ide is released into the atmosphere, it acts like the ceiling of a greenhouse, trapping solar energy and retarding theescape of reflected heat. It is therefore a species—themost important species—of a “greenhouse gas.”
Calling global warming “the most pressing environ-mental challenge of our time,”1 a group of States,2 local governments,3 and private organizations,4 alleged in a petition for certiorari that the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) has abdicated its responsibility under the Clean Air Act to regulate the emissions of four greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. Specifically, petitionersasked us to answer two questions concerning the meaningof §202(a)(1) of the Act: whether EPA has the statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles; and if so, whether its stated reasons for refusing to do so are consistent with the statute.
In response, EPA, supported by 10 intervening States5 and six trade associations,6 correctly argued that we maynot address those two questions unless at least one peti-tioner has standing to invoke our jurisdiction under Arti-cle III of the Constitution. Notwithstanding the seriouscharacter of that jurisdictional argument and the absence of any conflicting decisions construing §202(a)(1), theunusual importance of the underlying issue persuaded us to grant the writ. 548 U. S.
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