Lawsuit Filed in Court of Appeals to Enforce Massachusetts v. EPA Climate Change Case

One year ago, the Supreme Court rejected the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claim that it lacked legal authority to regulate global warming pollution. EPA administrator Stephen Johnson promised a firm and prompt response to the high Court’s decision, yet a year passed with no action. Today, a dozen states, three cities, and eleven non-profit organizations filed a writ of mandamus in the federal court of appeals to compel EPA to comply. See, http://www.sierraclub.org/environmentallaw/lawsuits/docs/Mandamus_Petition.pdf

The petition states, in part:“As EPA’s own statements and a Congressional inquiry demonstrate: the Administrator publicly set a firm deadline for making the endangerment determination by the end of 2007; the agency has already completed all of its work on issues that, under the Supreme Court’s decision, are relevant to that determination; the Administrator has in fact made an internal decision in favor of endangerment; and the Administrator has forwarded the full formal write-up of that determination to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The publication of the endangerment determination, however, is now being withheld. The Administrator has refused to give the petitioners or Congress a timetable for action, and he has explained his delay by reference to considerations that are not legally relevant under the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

See what the Warminglaw blog has to say about this lawsuit:           http://warminglaw.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/states-epa-dela.html