Supreme Court Calls for Review of Greenhouse Gas Rules

The Supreme Court Monday ordered the federal government to take a new look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, in a rebuke to the Bush administration’s policy on global warming, the Associated Press reported.

In a 5-4 decision, the court said the federal Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from automobiles, AP reported.

Greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the landmark environmental law, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the court’s majority opinion. The court’s four conservative justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas — dissented.

The lawsuit was filed by 12 states, led by Massachusetts, and 13 environmental groups that had grown frustrated by the Bush administration’s inaction on global warming, AP said.

Carbon dioxide is produced when fossil fuels such are burned. One way to reduce those emissions is to have more fuel-efficient vehicles, AP said.