USA, Washington DC
The ongoing stoush in the US about who is responsible for regulating greenhouse emissions could have come to a head, with the US Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse emissions are a pollutant, meaning that they therefore come under the jurisdiction of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to Bloomberg, the Justices, voted 5-4, saying that the Environmental Protection Agency didn't follow the requirements of the Clean Air Act in 2003 when it opted not to order cuts in carbon emissions from new cars and trucks.
Justice John Paul Stevens commented further saying, "EPA has offered no reasoned explanation for its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change."
Though the ruling may not necessarily result in new regulations, it does at least give the EPA responsibility for regulating greenhouse emissions. To date, state based regulators have been enacting their own legislation to regulate carbon emissions, but automakers have been fighting this on the basis that regulating emissions are a defacto form of imposing fuel efficiency, which they argue is a federal responsibility.
The Court ruling arose from an action by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in an attempt to challenge the deadlock.
Ultimately, the ruling could prove favorable for natural gas vehicles, which are providing an increasing greenhouse gas advantage, in some cases as much as 30%, over gasoline and diesel fuelled vehicles.
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